The Bronze Statue, or, The Virgin's Kiss — page 346: what you’re looking at

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

344 THE BRONZE STATUE. fix, she joined her hands in the listless- ness of a crushing despair. Then arose the voice of Father Cy- prian, echoing with sepulchral intona- tion through the circular chapel and in| | did the Baroness Hamelen stand face to the adjacent corridor ; and when he had repeated a short prayer, invoking hea- ven’s mercy upon the soul of the wo- man who was about to die, the three : ‘and which gave its name to the tremen- executioners once more seized upon their victim. And at the same instant that Hubert lighted the way into the hall of the Bronze Statue, the Marquis of Schom- berg was dragged fromthe opposite door into the circular chapel. More dead than alive, was the Baro- ness Hamelen borne into the place where the colossal image of the Virgin stood ; but the instant that the beams of Hubert’s lamp fell upon the burnished surface of that statue, which was alike so beautiful and so terrible, the unhappy woman seemed to be suddenly inspired with all that poignant anguish of feeling which sprang trom a heart in whose core a death wound was already in- flicted ! Ihe gag fell from her mouth, and a piercing, rending scream burst from her lips, as the Bronze Statue slowly stood out of the distant obscurity and deve- loped its outlines and its shape to her horrified view. Writhing desperately in the grasp of the executioners, she turned towards them to implore their mercy,—to be- seech them to loosen their hold upon her. Their cowls were now threwn back ; and the baroness, struck by the mild and melancholy .expression of those couptenances which she had expected to find pitiless and ferocious, was in- spired by a gleam of hope that she might yet be able to move the hearts of these men to mercy. But while this idea was yet travers- ing her brain, some undefinable chain of associations brought back to her re- collection the features of the three ex- ecutioners; the deeds of the past, so far as they were concerned, flashed on the instant to her memory ; and, chang- ed though they were by sorrow and the lapse of years, she recognized the Bro- thers Schwartz ! Then upon her lip died the prayer which she Was about to put forth to them in appeal for mercy; and as a CHAPTER LXXXYV. THE VIRGIN’S KISS. Anp now for the first time in her life face before that image of which she had heard so much, of the terrible myste- ries of which she was so well aware,— dous tribunal whereof she had long been one of the most influential mem- bers. Casting upon the statue a look full of unutterable horror, she threw herself back and seemed to bend beneath the calm and placid expression of counten- ance which the modeller’s exquisite art had given to the Virgin; but then she knew—alas ! too well knew, that in pro- portion as the aspect of the image was benignant, mild, and merciful, the pu- nishment of which it was in reality the accursed engine, was atrocious, horrible and pitiless. . Writhing with mortal agony in the grasp of the three executioners, and giving vent to the most piercing screams, the miserable woman appeared to be | suddenly animated with the strength of a giantess; and carrying the Brothers Schwartz back with her a few paces in her desperate struggle to escape from their power, she besought the old stew- ard to have mercy upon her,—to save her,—to suffer her to escape! The ghastly features of the trembling Hubert were illamed into a_ horrible expression by the flickering light of the lamp which he carried in his hand ;— and he was about to give utterance to some ejaculation which rose to his lips, when turning his eyes suddenly to- wards the door opening from the cir- cular chapel, he perceived that the Marquis of Schomberg was already there, kneeling upon the granite has- sock, and attended by the Carthusian priest, the Baron of Altendorf, and the sworn servitors of the tribunal of the Bronze Statue. Then the words which the old man was about to utter, what- ever they were, died upon his lip; and averting his looks from the baroness, he seemed to be praying fervently and si- lently as his trerabling hand still held the light which threw its quivering beams on his pallid features now dis- torted with an indescribable horror. suddenly a bell sent forth a deep- a - _—> fearful moan burst from her tongue in- | toned sound, which appeared to come stead, she was hurried onward into the | from some neighboring apartment and presence of the Bronze Statue. to be laden with all the funereal gloom : - niieeiil comicbooks.com