The Bronze Statue, or, The Virgin's Kiss — page 85: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE BRONZE STATUE. but of a deep melting blue, full of sen- sibility and softness, and shaded by long dark brown lashes. her whole countenance was that of re- flective sweetness and modesty, mingl- ed with virgin dignity and the light of intellect. Her complexion was very fair, having all the satin-like freshness of the ca- meljia, touched with the pure tint of the rose; and the hue of the cheeks was enhanced almost into richness by the tinge of brown which the sun had paint- ed there, and which denoted a vigorous health. But now, as we have observed above, an unnatural paleness marred the : | proached one of the The character of | blue. appearance of youthful freshness which | she was wont to wear: and the shade of pensiveness that was her usual cha- racteristic had deepened into a cloud of gloom, hordering upon sombre despair. Parted above that brow, where virgin innocence and genius sate enthroned. like the twin queens of nature’s own royalty, and flowing in undulations. which seemed to be waves ot alternate | light and shade, over her finely sloping shoulders, and down her back even to | vast feudal structure. her Christian piety, she scarcely thought not the dead whom she now feared,— the waist, the maiden’s luxuriant hair was a grand feature of her beauty. Not golden, like that of Gloria, and very far tanais, it was nevertheless such a flood of rich and massive tresses that might have made the envy of any empress. Of a light chestnut, almost approaching to flaxen, it was pale in hue, and yet shining with velvet glossiness: and as ———— her eyes the width of the moat from being raven black, like that of Sa-| : | : ' rendered her a captive in that lonely the fingers of the hand which supported | her head played listlessly with a strag- ling curl, it seemed as if the finest silk. Frosh from the cocoon, were twisting round alabaster delicately tinged with a roseate hue. : Such was the beauteous woman whom we find seated in the haunted a at Altendorf Castle. The features of this room were pre- cisely the same as when we described them in one of the opening chapters of our narrative. The fresh drapery and the clean linen of the bed contrasted strangely with the crumbling, decaying tapestry that was falling away from the walls ; the sinking in of the velvet cloth Spread upon the floor, showed where the boards had given way in several places beneath that luxurious carpet ; and the crimson cushions only rendered the old furniture more antiquated in ap- pearance. It was ten o’clock in the evening, and the moon, the silver-crowned queen of neath the window went straight down Into the water, and that its foot rested upon no embankment nor jutting mar- gin on which she could alight were she 'to lower herself by a rope from the |casement; she was about to turn away partment |in despair, when her eye cau the thought flashed to her imagination ry Vv 8 the changing months, shone brightly from, her ce lestial palace of deep, deep Kising from her seat, the maiden ap- windows, opened the casement, and‘looked forth. The moat shone like a river of quicksilver, and all was freshness, and fragrance, aad moonlight without, as on that night when Sir Ernest de Colmar was him- self an occupant of the State Chamber. Dut within the apartment naught save gloom, and darkness just rendered vis- ible, and the earthy odor of mouldering tapestry and rotting furniture came upon the senses of the captive maiden. tor a prisoner she indeed was, in the right wing of Altendorf Castle ; and she was no stranger to the reputation ascribed by rumor to that portion of the But, strong in that the Almighty would permit shapes of terror or supernatural sounds to ap- pal a helpless, innocent maiden who never in word, or deed, or idea had of- fended against His laws. No: it was but the living; and if, as she gazed forth from the window, she measured with that lay beneath, it was because at the moment that she might peradventure escape trom the power of the persecutor who. had torn her away from her home and chamber of evil repute. But when she saw that the wall be- ght a glimpe of some white object movin amidst the trees that stretched from the forest towards the extremity of the right wing of the castle. And now, indeed,—despite her reli- gious confidence, her strong intellect, and her fervid reliance on heaven’s goodness,—she could not resist the cold terror which seized upon her—she could not combat against the superna- tural awe that crept, like an ice-snake, in unto her very heart, round which it seemed to coil ! Lransfixed to the spot, and with @ numbness passing through all her limbs, the maiden was unable to retreat from the window or even to avert her head. comicbooks.com