Her Royal Lover: A Novel — page 77: what you’re looking at

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

HER ROYAL LOVER. 69 king, the remembrance of that morning in which he had seen her on horseback escorted by Heiligenthal, over-excited his nerves, and, more than his physical sufferings, banished from his heavy eyelids the sleep of which he had somuch need. For him, on this sleepless night, hours succeeding hours, passed mortally slow. A profound quiet hovered over the embassy. Ex- cept himself, all were reposing peacefully. Nature seemed to invite him toa sleep by which alone he could recuperate from the fatigue which over- whelmed him; but the more profound was thé silence, the greater also was the tumult of his pas- sions. His thoughts, similar to a light atom, were con- tinually tossed about by the surge of his so often contradictory sensations. Alone in the silence of the night he scrutinized the immense gulf of his agitated soul where anger, like a second life within his life, whirled unceasingly in the hell of his passions. Without, like a soul in torment, the tempest com- menced to moan. The sky, darkened by the wind, permitted here and ,there its azure to be perceived, studded with pale stars whose brilliancy were diminished by the intensity of the darkness. From time to time, a cloud heavier than the rest separated like one divides a piece of cotton, and each scattered particle floated away, vanishing in the immensity of space. At equal intervals a dull rumbling was heard in the distance; a vivid flash of lightning left the horizon, precursor of a tempest that entire nature was awaiting. (E(O) Al C JOO KS (€ @)