The Bronze Statue, or, The Virgin's Kiss — page 301: what you’re looking at

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

THE BRONZE STATUE. 299 animated with such an expression of | ness has foredoomed this innocent child joy as I had never seen it assume be- fore; and, token of respect towards the baroness, he said, ‘ Noble lady, | receive your gracious gifs with heartfelt gratitude ; | is the more welcome inasmuch | and it as it contains an initial which not only belongs to your own Christian name, but likewise to that of her whom I dar- ed to love and who is now no more!” ‘Then, as 1f suddenly recollec ting himself and feeling annoyed that in the agitation of -his emotions he should have made the remark, Zitzka bowed hastily and retired witha strange abrupt- ness. This anecdote has little or thing to do with the main thread of my narrative: but I mention it as an incl- dent furnishing some idea of the mys- ho- terious character of that man who has | the selfish inclinations which bind weak since made all Europe ring with his re- nown ! ‘I must now observe that soon after the events which made Father Hera- cles acquainted with the Baron of I- degardo’s fatal secret, he undertook a journey to Prague, where he remained | for some weeks; but on his return to the castle he refused any explanation of the motives of his absence; alleging, however, that time would clear up the mystery. ‘The baron could not help thinking that the holy father’s visit to | ; of bland remonstrance, ‘‘ would almost the capital had been in some way con- nected with his own affairs; but thoughts were soon diverted into ano- ther channel, for the period was now at hand when the Lady Emilia was to be- come a mother. All the vassals upon the Ildegardo estate made immense preparations to do honor to the event. Baron Georgey, Emilia’s father, was confined to his own feudal dwelling by a severe illness; but a courier esting intelligence the moment birth should take place. cles and the Baron of Ildegardo remain- ed together in an apartment near the | land !”’ cried the baron, with fierce looks chamber of the Lady Emilia, who was attended by the resident phy Sician of the castle and the usual servitress. At. length the crisis came; and it was at mid- day, in the month of falling upon one knee in| | convent, she may detest and abhor the —_ his | sary. ‘ia having made the appalling contract was in. readiness to convey thither the inter- | the | Father Hera- | 'geance upon that secret association !— August, bt 4 Bronze Statue ‘to the seclusion of a cloister ; and when torn from the world to be immured ina heartless sire who will consign her to a living tomb.” ‘+++ Hear not that such will be her feel- ing, my son,” said the reverend priest, ‘(Krom her very infancy will she be reared with the impression that she is destined to take the veil; and thus the idea will grow up with her, becoming as it were a part of her nature, and ac- companying the development of her mind. In this manner will she be train- ed to look only heaven-ward even from the cradle ; and should worldly thoughts ever intrude into the recesses of her soul, she will think of the blessed saints ‘and holy martyrs, and long to imitate them somewhat by the sacrifice of all and erring mortals to the gaud, glitter, and pleasure of life.’’ «++ And yet it is hard—oh ! it is hard,’’ exclaimed the baron passionately, ‘ to ‘have my first-born child torn from me at an age when her beauty, ner accom- _plishments, and her virtues, may ren- |der her parents proud of her, and like- wise encourage the noblest youths of Bohemia to seek to win her as a bride.” ++ Those observations on the part of your lordship,” said the priest, in a tone lead me to infer that you repent of the step you took five months ago, in dedi- cating your then expected first-born to heaven.”’ ‘ Repent! ejaculated the baron; *¢no, that is not the word, because the step was rendered imperiously neces- But I repent of my own rashness with the Baron of Altendorf; and [I curse the existence of that infernal tri- bunal the terrors of which have brought me to the present pass. Oh! for ven- Oh! for the power to uproot it from the and wild voice. ‘*it would at least render the weight of my misfortunes more tolerable, were the tribunal of the annihilated; for then twenty years ago,—that the Baroness of | would my fated daughter be spared the lidegardo rave birth to a daughter. ‘s¢ Alas! alas !’’? exclaimed the baron, when the physician who brought him this intelligence had retired, and he was | once more “alone with Father Heracles; ‘‘]T experience no joy in the knowledge that lam nowa parent: For my rash | necessity of abandoning her own coun- try to take the veil in a foreign clime— ‘and she would seek the seclusion of ‘that cloister in which her aunts, Baron | Georgey’ s daughters, now dwell.” ‘ « Pranquillize yourself, my son,” said Father Heracles, with a tone and comicbooks.com = - oP a « * ‘ome ee i a r a « . ° * “~~ i le i ek a ee ee a # - . - , . -— —< ‘ - ‘ » - e " on & ee Oe ee eee i Lie n ; ia 4