Angelina: Or, The Mystery of St. Mark's Abbey — page 29: what you’re looking at

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

16 ANGELINA’ OR, at lact, arriving at the end of the passage, she once more thought she beheld the white robes of the form ehe had seen on a former occasion, flit through the door- way as she reached it. Confident that she was not this time mistaken, Angelina mustered ap resolt- fon to enll, and desired the supposed phantom in the name of heaven to stop = but the dismal echoes of her own voice along the gloomy avenues aloke an- gvered ber, and she rushed with precipitation towards the iow archway that seented to be the only outlet. A suditien flood of light now burst upen Angelina, who extinguished her own, and to her utter astonishment found that she was in a fong and lofty gothic gallery, supported by marbie pillars, but fm a state of decay. ‘She was confi- dent that she was no longer: traversing underground, ‘nnd: she was eager to know with what building the secret passages the had trackdd, conimunicated. The gallery was lighted by a large window of stained ginsé at each end, and round the stone frame-work of which the moss and ivy thickly crept. Several oaken doors opened into this gallery, which Angelina tried, but found them fast, until at length she came to one that was open, and she entered without fear. The farniture fn this room haé evidently been extremely hahdsome, though antique, and was in tolerable preservation considering the nomber of years it tad been left: there in neglect. Angelina now felt convinced that site was In some ruined gothic pile, but could not form any -ideu what it could be. Many woble paintings and portraits of “ knights and ladyes fair, tvere yet banging on the walls, but so decayed by damp, that it was: ‘aliboat mh pontinie’ to make out the subjects. Passing through this apartment, our heroine found herself fri a room of rather large diniensions, but in worse condition. The tapestry was entirely destroyed, and both the casements and shutters broken nearly to pieces, the eabomns whicfr supported it seemed also rotten and decryed. Issuing from the room by a large onken door, she stépped into a small dark: gallery, and proceeding to the further end, descended a Winding staircase, and flinging back a pair of folding @oors at the bottem, what was her astonishment to: find herself in the Gothic Hall of Saint Mark’s Abbey ! Completely thanderstruck at this circumstance, and more than ever convinced that the abbey was inhabited, not Sy spectres, but some unfortunate being who sought sectusion from the world, Angefinn forgot the injunctions of the un- known woman she had formerly encotntered there in so mysterious a manner, and pondered with delight over the crumbling relics of the days of old. Mag- nificent in the extreme ‘had onee been that mouldering hall, and Argefina stood lost in admiration of the immense cotumns; by which what remained of the roof was supported. ‘There could not possibly be a more striking picture of feudal greatness. It one place the eye rested upon a headless column, its base buried several feet in the earth, and as firm as the monarch of the forest; ia anather place lay three. or four eapitals, around which might be seen the matilated faces of several hideous monstere, binging to the mind the barbarous ideas of their creators. Here might the idea feast and revel over an heterogeneous mass of broken columns, pilasters, capitals, and dilapidated pinnacles, together with ianumerable other striking mementos of .the labour and ingenuity of our ancestors. Our heroine, as she contemplated with sublime admiration and wonder everything around her, became absorbed in a dreamy reverie of the cCoMmmicaooks Go