The King's Talisman — page 146: what you’re looking at

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

THE KINGS TALISMAN. | 137 stretching his nervous hand toward the new-comer. ‘‘ Do you, too, bear me croakings of ill? Speak!” ‘‘ Last night, sire,” returned the courier, in hurried, frightened accents, ‘‘some time after the turn of midnight, the heathen temple—the temple of Taurus, was opened — from within, and horses and camels went in.” ‘*Was this seen and not told to me before?” ‘‘A woman, sire, from her house-top, saw it, but from her fright she dared not move out till daylight.” ‘‘Now, by the holy cross, I do know that open trea- son stalks through the kingdom!” the monarch exclaimed, as he clutched his hands, and set his teeth firmly together. «My realm has become the den of conspirators—but by the _ power of the living God, they shall revel no longer!” The meanest reptile can be made to turn resolutely in de- fense, and so the coward may be wrought up to a point of cool desperation. When Xerxes recrossed the Hellespont, alone and unattended, in a small fishing-boat, he was not _ entirely down-hearted, nor were his energies all broken, for he still had a kingdom, and in Greece he still had an army left behind him, and though at home and abroad his enemies were strong and subtle, yet he pushed his fortunes in their faces. | So Modad felt, as he now resolved to seize the helm, and push boldly through the troubled waters. His every energy was strung, and his very fears had made him savage in his fierce determination. What sent fright to others was a balm to him; the mysterious opening of the heathen temple was not strange to his mind, but it assured him that his prey was safe, for he knew that those who entered the city at night had sought refuge within its walls. Gradually the blood returned to its wonted flow through the monarch’s veins, and his step became firm and steady. He paced the apartment a dozen times, when the arras was again pushed aside, and the centurion entered his presence. Eomicbooks €O