The Bronze Statue, or, The Virgin's Kiss — page 282: what you’re looking at

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

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Almost ut the same instant Bernard’s ears cuught the sound of footsteps ra- pidly ascending the stairs; and his first feeling was one of terror lest the indi- vidualthus hurriedly approaching should prove to be one of the priest’s party of desperados. But scarcely had the alarm risen up in his mind when it was dissipated by the appearance of Sir Er- ° . . . nest de Colmar himself; and in ano- ther moment Satunais was taken from the arms of the venerable octogenarian and strained, with mingled rapture and apprehension, to the breast of the Aus- trian warrior. ‘Thanks, kind old man, for your ge- nerous attention!’ he exclaimed, ‘I shall not forget toreward you suitably. The wound is bandaged,—the blood is stanched, I perceive ; but this prolong- ed insensibility lead to death And De Colmar was seized with a mortal terror and an excruciating an- guish at the bare thought. ‘Let the breeze play upon her coun- tenance,’ said the old man, ‘and [| will fetch water from my cell.’ | ‘Oh! delay not, [implore you!’ cried the: Austrian; and, while Bernard hur- ried away to his chamber in the oppo- site corner of tue quadrangle, our hero, bending upon one knee, sustained the Daughter of Satan in his arms. Her eyes were closed, her lips were 9 slightly apart, the pearly teeth shining | between, and not a feature quivered, nor did a muscle of her body vibrate. Like a beauteous statue did she recline thus supported in the warrior’s arms; her legs streiched upon the roof, her body ina half sitting posture, with her j that shape, over all the flowing outlines and rich proportions of which his looks thus rapidly travelled. Then upon her cold but polished brow did he imprint a soft kiss; and from her forehead his lips wandered to her mouth. the rich vermillion of which was now of a fainter and more roseate hue; and to his‘un- speakable joy he beheld her superb form moving gently in the half-embrace in which he sustained it. ‘She lives! she lives!’ he exclaimed, in a tone of fervid enthusiasm; and, placing his hand upon her heart, he felt the feeble pulsation of returning vitality, At that moment the venerable Ber- nard returned with a drinking-horn full of water; and the knight sprinkled the countenance of Satanais with the re- freshing fluid. Beneath the olive clear- ness of her transparent skin, the hue of the carnation slowly, slowly retinted her soft cheeks; her bosom swelled with a long heaving, as if ridding itself of a suffocating sensation, and as it fell again her lips moved with the relief oc- casioned by a full and easy respiration. ‘Then she slowly opened her eyes, those rr $n Oh! if it should ' splendid orbs that now shone with the subdued lustre of a gazelle’s, and look- ing up into the countenance that bent over her, she smiled with an ineffable sweetness onrecognizing the handsome features of Sir Ernest de Colmar. ‘Fear nothing, beloved Satanais,’ he said, gently pressing her in his arms; ‘nor torture yourself with disagreeable reminiscences. Your enemies are de- feated, the base_Carthusian has fled.’ ‘And that youth, in the bright armor —your unknown friend?’ murmured the Daughter of Satan, her countenance expressing a sudden anxiety; * what has become of her—of him, I mean?’ ‘He is safe—uninjured and scathe- less like myself,’ answered De Colmar. ‘But do not rack your brain, dearest Satanais, with thoughts concerning all that has just passed,’ exclaimed the knight, in atone of tender entreaty and head lying upon his shoulder. It was|remonstrance; for he failed not to notice that total abandonment of her hip which, arising from a profound trance, left her in all the natural and unstudied | grace of that position which her limbs and body happened to take as De Col- mar gently deposited her there ; and as his eyes swept along her motionless form, he could not help observing, even in the midst of the alarms which he was experiencing on her account, the marvellous symmetry, transcendant: that the dark houri had just spoken of the unknown in the female gender, al- though she had instantaneously correct- ed herself, and as De Colmar entertain- ed not the slightest suspicion of his brave deliverer’s real sex, he naturally fancied that the mind of Satanais was some- what disturbed and unsettled by all that had just occurred. ‘l am better now—much better,’ she said, fixing upon the Austrian a look of loveliness, and ravishing perfection of impassioned fondness: then suddenly comicbooks.com