The Bronze Statue, or, The Virgin's Kiss — page 159: what you’re looking at

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

THE BRONZE STATUE. 157 young men, ere you accompany me throb with the fever of the most agoniz- whither I am about to Jead you; but I| ing, the most poignant excitement. warn you that if the slightest cry for In a few minutes the subterranean succor should escape the tongue of| passage, which first sloped downward, either, a gag shall instantly be applied | next proceeded straight, and then rose to the lips of the offender.’ Having thus spoken in a tone which, though cold and severe, had the least, least tremulousness in it, Hubert turned abruptly away from the two youths, whom the bravos thereupon hastened | to bind in such a manner that though rendered powerless for resistance or escape, they were nevertheless enabled | to walk. When this process was completed, Hubert raised a trap-door of the little chapel, and a descent of stone steps ap- peared. Never—never had there been such a moment in the lives of the unfortunate youths as this one, when they were commanded to follow Hubert down that entrance into a subterranean passage leading to heaven only knew what hor- ror, what torture, what frightful doom! For now that thing which for three nights and three days had haunted them like a demon-spectre—that Bronze Statue which had been proclaimed the instrument and the means of their fate, assumed a more tremendous shape to their imagination and became more dis- tinctly appalling to their mental view : Such was the fearful condition of their minds—such was the harrowing state of their souls, as the unhappy youths descended the stone steps lead- ing to the subterranean which they be- held stretching away into total dark- ness. For it was yet bright day upon the earth, and the beams of the sun, as the glorious orb was sinking towards its western home, illuminated the interior of the chapel and penetrated even be- yond the bottom of the staircase of solid masonry. Hubert, who led the way, now light- ed a lamp, which he took from a niche in the damp wall of the subterranean, which went shelving down with a steep incline. The youth followed him, and two of the armed men brought up the rear. ' ' | ) | with a-steep ascent, terminated at a small door. This Hubert opened by means of a key which he had about him; andthe party entered a place which, by the feeble beaming of the lamp borne by the old steward, struck the youths as being a subterranean pri- son; for the low vaulted roof and the groined arches were supported by mas- | sive pillars, and the echoes raised by the footsteps of the party, reverberated again and again, until they died away in the sinister and dreaded distance, which was shrouded in impenetrable dark- ness. But they had not advanced many paces into this subterranean, ere the two pages began to perceive white things, of ominous shape, gleaming ghastly from amid the obscurity, and likewise black objects standing out as it | were in ebon gloom from the darkness that shrouded the place ; and they soon became aware that they were in a vast succession of vaults, filled with tombs, some of white and some of black mar- | ble. Skirting the low but massive wall from which the groined arches rose af short intervals, Hubert led the way as far as an iron grating that communicat- ed with a wide and handsome marble staircase, fronting the great central ave- nue which divided the place of sepul- chre. Turning into that avenue, the steward continued to lead the way, amid the numberless tombs that appear- ed on either side ; and all this time not a word was spoken, not a syllable fell from the lips of a soul. At the extremity of the avenue an- other door was opened; and now the youths were conducted into that cham- ber where the infernal machinery de- | veloped its appalling features to their view. Aghast they stood, gazing upon it, so amazed and horror-stricken that their minds were scarcely capable of forming any conclusion relative to its use; al- A solemn silence prevailed, broken! though the conviction was carried to only by the echoes of the footsteps of | their souls that the diabolical mechanism those who were thus threading the passage ; but at every pace which Kon- rad and Lionel took, some new idea of impending horror started up in their minds, making their blood run cold in its crimson channels, and their brows was connected with the awful doom which hung over their own heads, and to which every step they were taking brought them nearer and nearer. Fascinated by the dread machinery, they would have stood to contemplate it comicbooks.com A Selle . ee met _— : i? = s ; ; ~ eR meL; al ad v ~~ sd ~