The Bronze Statue, or, The Virgin's Kiss — page 220: what you’re looking at

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

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No - > pa Sere, ees ~ * * oo - a? se > - —— /. a Sib oe * et i Bee &- * « Je = - ee = s 218 THE BRONZE STATUE. And Gloria contemplated the sleep-| not, and thus adding solemnly and aw- ing page for nearly a minute ; and then it suddenly appeared to De Colmarthat | her countenance all in a moment.under- went a fearful change; and the cold, glacial pallor was succeeded by an ex- pression of diabolical ferociousness. A shudder swept through the entire ’ ' ; ' | | | fully to the statue-like aspect of the guilty creature who was so profoundly paralysed by her own unutterable feel- ings. De Colmar had given vent to-an eja- culation of horror, and had burst with startling abruptness into the room; brt form of Sir Ernest de Colmar; but at| the wild and terrible effect which his the same instant the white arm of Glo-| presence thus produced upon Gloria— ria was raised over the couch of the | freezing as it were the very blood in sleeping page; and a poinard which she grasped in her hand, gleamed in the lustre of the lamp like a lightning flash. | And with the ineffable speed, too, of | the vivid lightning did the weapon de-_ scend; and at the very same instant that the murderous blow was dealt, an ejaculation of horror burst from the lips of Sir Ernest de Colmar, as he sprang into the chamber. CHAPTER LY. THE MURDERESS. Tue effect produced upon Gloria by the sudden appearance of Sir Ernest de Colmar in the midst of that scene of midnight murder, was as if the Medu- sa’s head had all ina moment sprung up before her. ‘l'ransfixed with mor- tal dread, she seemed to have been changed into a statue just at the very instant when the first feelings of hor- ror, anguish, amazement, and rage were electrified into vivid vitality in her soul ; and the expression of these mingled emotions remained stamped upon her countenance, as if it congealed in allits ghastliness the instant that it seized upon those features which were natu- rally so full of splendor, and beauty, and light, and love! The lamp fell not from her hand, nor did the arm move which upraised it; and the other arm remained stretched out rigidly and with the fingers distend- ed, just as that hand was when it quit- ted its hold upon the dagger and expe- rienced the petrifying influence which seized on every feature, member, mus- cle, and tendon all ina moment! Nor did a word escape the lips of the Daugh- ter of Glory—those lips which were now wide apart and colorless as the blanched cheeks themselves! Her eyes, no longer glowing with a heavenly ter light of hell; but even this light was steady and motionless—vibrating / me ne ~ + | lustre, seemed to shine with the sinis- ' ’ | | ‘into ice or ' her veins, and changing her whole form marble—operated with a species of reaction upon himself, and made him stop short under the influ- ence of a sudden panic. And for nearly a minute did those two beings stand thus confronting each other—the noble-hearted knight and the guilty woman—the former scarcely able to believe the evidence of his own senses, and still fancying that he must be laboring under the influence of an appalling dream, and the latter so com- | pletely a prey to the profoundest. con- sternation that she only experienced all the tremendous weight of her crushing thoughts without having the power to analyse them in detail. At length De Colmar suddenly threw off the spell which horror and amaze- ment had cast upon him; and snatch- ing the lamp from Gloria’s hand,:he ad- vaneed to the bed wherein the_ page lay. But the victim was past all hu- man succor; deep, deep into his heart had the weapon pierced, and with such unerring effect had the blow been dealt, that no wonder was it if the unfortu- nate youth had expired instantaneously, without a groan, and even without moy- ing an inch to the right or to the left in that couch which had become the bed of death instead of wanton pleasure. ‘Gloria, is this possible?’ said De Colmar, in a low and scarcely audible tone, as he turned his eyes from the scene of murder to the countenance of the murderess. ‘O God! have mercy upon me!’ ex- clrimed the Daughter of Glory, now bursting, as it were, from her statue-— like trance into all the poignant anima- tion of her agonising feelings; and covering her face with her hands, she melted into a flood of tears. Between her taper fingers trickled fast the pearly drops of her anguish; and as she threw her head backward in the convulsive writhings which her body derived from the soul’s excrucia- ting agony, the heavings of her bosom became fully apparent. ' } comicbooks.com a. aa