The Bronze Statue, or, The Virgin's Kiss — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

18 THE BRONZE STATUE. husband of the Princess Elizahetha, replied} ‘I understand you,’ said the Knight.— the Carthusian. ‘The Bohemian nobles |‘ You foresee that you will be rendering would rally round the banner of a monarch | vast services to the Duke of Austria, and who is famed throughoutChristendom for his | you require a commensurate reward.’ | valor, and who, by thus acquiring a right to | _* Such is the proper light wherein to view interfere in the affairs of this distracted/ the matter,’ answered the Carthusian: then, country, would strike terror to the hearts | as his really fine countenance became sud- of Zitzka and his republican horde.’ denly animated with the clow of his heart’s ‘The Princess, you say, is beautiful ?’ ob- | towering ambition, he exclaimed, ‘ Without served the Knight, interrogatively. me, your illustrious master can do nothing ‘Beautiful as an angel—-mild, docile, | in Bohemia. He cannot even discover the and tractab.e,’ responded the Carthusian.— | retreat of the Princess Elizabetha—nor “Her deceased fathers will entrusts me | obtain the slightest clue to the spot where with the sole guardianship of this charming | her vast fortune isdeposited. ‘T'o me, then, creature.’ inust he be indebted for everything, bride— ‘And provided that, in consequence of|treasures—throne! And in return ! de- any favorable report which I may be in-| mand the Archbishopric of Prague, with a duced to make to my illustrious master,’ said | written understanding that my cause shall De Colmar, ‘ his Highness shall accede to| be supported when the day comes on your views,—and granting that the Princess | which I may stand forward as a candidate shall have no objection to the matrimonial | for the Popedom, scheine which your Excellency has devised,| Sir Ernest started involuntarily as he sur- —in this case, what is the recompense you | veyed the ecclesiastic whose soaring imagi- demand for your aid and services ”” nation had formed, and whose bold tongue ‘To your Excellency, as the represent- | had expressed, these colossal hopes; and ative of the mighty Duke of Austria, shall| he could not help thinking how strongly { unbosom myself with candor and frank- | the Carthusian’s adventurous mind contrast- ness,’ answered the priest. ‘Of all the|ed with that garb of almost mendicant sim- Sovereigns of Europe have I selected your | Plicity, and with that modest rosary and hu- master as the most worthy to secure that | milieting scourge. prize which I have in my keeping.— ‘If you deem me presuptuous, Sir Knight, Through me, he may become the = said the priest, haughtily, ‘our conference of the loveliest and richest Princess in| is at an end.’ Christendom ; and, by espousing her, he} ‘I crave your pardon, worthy friar, if by places on his head the Bohemian crown.—| look or manner, Il have given offence,’ re- Having secured this high, enviable, and| turned De Colmar: ‘but I must frankly ad- proud posi'ion, what is to prevent him from | mit that your demands have somewhat star- entertaining a Joftier ambition still? For|tled me. Nevertheless, they are not alto- Sigismund, the reigning Emperor of Ger- gether out of proportion with the services many, is old and childless: and were it] you may render my master. Youhelp him possible to find a more fitting and eligible | to ascend the throne of Bohemia, with that aspirant to the imperial purple than in the | of all Germany in perspective: and it is man who shali already wear the united dia-| perhaps only fair that he should promote dems of ducal Austria an! royal Bohemia? you to an Archbishopric, which may lead Mark well, then, Sir Knight, that in raising | you to the seat of Sovereign Pontiff Thus your illustrious master to the throne at| far, then, do I accept your proposals on be- Prague, I at once place him on the high | half of Albert Duke of Austria, whose road to that still more glorious throne which plen*potentiary Tam. But it is absolutely ex sts at Aix-la-Cha pelle.’ necessary that I should be presented to the We must remind our readers that at the! Princess EF izabetha: for | unhesitatingly period of which we ,are writing, Germany |} and emphatically declare to your Rever- was split into a number of States, as at the | ence that my master is of too honorable a present day; but that the entire confedera- | disposition to lead that fair young orphan tion was governed by an Emperor, chosen | to the altar without her full concurrence by election, and the seat of whose imperi- | and complete assent.’ al government was Aix-la-Chapelle. In ‘It shall be as you say, Sir Knight,’ an- those times the ismperor of Austria existed | swered the Carthusian, *We will meet not: Vienna was only the capital of a|again at Prague four days hence; and yonr duchy ;—while Ilungary and Bohemia were Excellency shall then be honored by anin- independent kingdoms. These remarks | terview with the most lovely Princess in will fully explain the force of Father Cyp-| Christendom. Rest wel] assured that if rian’s reasoning, the strength of which was | there be aught of the poetical in your dis- limediately comprehended by Sir Ernest | position, no mean scope for the exercise of de Colmar. that genius will be afforded by the descrip- a COMICDOOKS.COlm