Penny Dreadfuls, 1850 · page 154 of 400
The Bronze Statue, or, The Virgin's Kiss — page 154: what you’re looking at
A restored page from Penny Dreadfuls, 1850. Page through the whole issue in the reader above.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
of - — - 2. — al ada aa - ——e ) hs oe et —s a Sa ee ae OS 1 ~ —~ ~ 7 es —_ * —— - _ ~~ eae oe + 5 ere a en eee — — * e2 ms = * oe “29 — ——- LF a - && — > 2 - alt - od ed - ~ « ihn, * SSS aes —— = x; _- — * . a” 2 152 THE BRONZE STATUE. far-off ships moving sluggishly on the | youths were allowed to perform their bosom of a sapphire sea; the distant |ablutions, and even had an opportunity mountains, bursting forth from the va-| of laying down to repose themselves if nishing vapors, appeared as if their|they felt so inclined; but they were steeps were of burnished gold and their | narrowly watched the whole time that summits of sunny blue ; in the gardens| they enjoyed the temporary privilege the autumnal fruitage that gemmed the | of this retirement to a private chamber. boughs and in the fields the yellow | And there, in that chamber, they threw sheaves seemed to turn into living glo- | themselves into each other’s arms, they ‘Ties; and in the pellucid lake the ima- ist. and they spoke of Linda and gery of its grove-girdled shores was! Beatrice, and far-off Vienna, and their traced in rippling shadows. beloved master; and the parents and But, oh! pale were the countenances | relatives whom they were fated perhaps and heavy were the hearts of Konrad| never to see more; and then they and Lionel as they beheld all the gor- ) shudderingly and whisperingly asked _geous features and all the touching| each other what could be meant by the beauty of this splendidly sun-lit scene, | Bronze Statue and the Virgin's Kiss! for perhaps, while the world was awak-| But neither was enabled to hazard ing to the enjoyment of a new day and | even a conjecture; while their terrified nature was decking herself in all her | looks and convulsing forms full plainly fairest and brightest garments, these | indicated that they both regarded the youths were hastening on to the goal of| mystery as something appalling in its some terrible doom! shadowy and incomprehensible outline. They glanced at each other ; but they | At the expiration of the two hours had no looks of hope to exchange ; they | the journey was renewed; and until glanced at the armed men, whose coun-| sunset was it continued, with an occa- tenances, on which the masks had not! sional halt to procure refreshment and been replaced since they stopped at the bait the horses. The night was passed way-side inn, were as menacingly sin- at a hostel; and on the following morn- ister and brutally ferocious as éver;/ing the travellers again set out at an and they glanced at the Carthusian| early hour. Throughout this second priest, but in his lineaments they be-| day nothing occurred deserving speciak held nought to encourage and nothing! mention; and the night was spent, like to reassure! ‘l’hen their eyes met |the preceding one, in comfortable quar- again, and in silent eloquence they si-| ters at away-sideinn. The third day’s multaneously expressed the same har- journey commenced; and in the course rowing idea, an idea which, if framed! of an hour the party reached a wood in words, would have beenconveyed by | which the two pages speedily recog- the three dread monosyllables—' We | nised as that in which the Taborite en- are lost !’ campment was pitched on the occasion At about an hour after sunrise, the | when they accompanied their master party stopped an another lonely hostel | to those head-quarters of the mighty upon the road’s side; and there a sub- | Zitzka, stantial breakfast was served up. But! Then they sighed profoundly as they the youths could not eat. ‘They were | exchanged looks of deep and mournful sick at heart; for their fate, whatever | meaning; for they thought of Linda it was to be, seemed inevitable; and| and Beatrice, those beauteous maidens succor appeared beyond all hope. The whotn they had seen in that grove for landlord of the inn where they now|the first time, and whose images had _ halted, was a morose ill-favored , man; | ever since remained impressed on their , and by certain looks of intelligence | hearts! | which passed between him and the} The journey was continued in silence . armed bravos, it was quite clear that/| as heretofore ; and in another half hour _ they were no strangers to each other. | the travellers reached a point where Lo appeal to that man was, therefore, | the road was intersected by a sinuosity evidently useless ; and even if his aspect of the Moldau, which takes’ its rise in had been good-tempered and benignant| the south of Bohemia, and stretches as an angel’s, he was powerless to 28-| away in a northerly course. At the sist the youths against such formidable spot where the great high road thus odds as the priest’s party mustered. crossed the river by means of a rude The halt at this 1nn lasted two hours, | wooden bridgs, the stream was narrow so that the steeds might be adequately and shallow, and the banks sloped down refreshed. During this interval the with. so gentle a descent, that it wae comicbooks.com