The Bronze Statue, or, The Virgin's Kiss — page 349: what you’re looking at

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

eRe acts ~ ee ZS —~— —~ -. ne om —- — ——_ —— i. aes 4 < mS AE. a »% rae ay 4 . ma, 7 awe ee _— —- —— THE BRONZE STATUE. | 347 ee ew Ot Oe — Cte ey not to tarry a moment longer, but to ciating. anguish had superseded the follow her away from the place. screams a few instants before so rend- But they heard her not, saw her not,|ing. Blinded, wounded all over, and remembered her not; all their facul- covered with blood, she fell between ties, all their senses, all their ideas were | the two uppermost cylinders, while the absorbed in the one tremendous cause | dreadful bell still went clangmg on. of that profound and terrible interest | which enchainedthem. Dominated by | this fearful sentiment, they were petri- | fied, statue-like ; no longer masters of themselves, they remained speechless | herself as she fell betwixt them, and and motionless, neither hearing the|then kept going-with the stronger im- vOICe that implored them to fly, nor} pulse added by the huge weight attach- feeling the hand: that strove to drag} eq to the cords. each of them in turn away from the) coming scene of horror. Thus was it that while the lady was still endeavoring, with an almost fren- zied zeal and frantic despair, to induce them to hasten from the spot, the bell sounded a third time. Then the Carmelite, staggering against the wall, seemed to lose all con- trol over her own reason, her own feel-| 4+ pair of cylinders, her agonies were ings, her own inclinations. Still, how- | MOS’ P A sca tas ey attire . ended, her life was extinguished, and ever, she grasped the lamp, but it was | a - ; , her spirit had fled for ever - only with a mechanical tenaciousness | that she held it. But still those huge cylinders went For by this time the rending shrieks | rolling on, hacking, hewing, and cutting of the baroness in the apartment above the still palpitating flesh with a horrible reached those who were stationed in | greediness, while large lumps of the the chamber below; and thus was it in- mangled body fell upon the next pair of deed too evident that a victim was about merciless drum-wheels; then, beimg to be offered up to the vengeance of the | still farther macerated there, the smal- Bronze Statue, and that victim a wo- ‘ler fragments went down to the third man ! pair; and, all the cylinders being in mo- And now the bell began that continu- | tion at the same time, the infernal pro- ous clang already described ; and in a} C&S continued for upwards of a minute, few moments the screams of the baro- | until the entire body was minced into ness became horrible to hear—tor, as | PLOCOS, which fell into the babbling she was now inside the Statue, the | Stream beneath and were borne away thrilling notes of her mortal anguish | by the rapid current. — penetrated more clearly through the | i Such was the punishment of the wooden trap-door over which the colos- | Bronze Statue ; such was aie appailing sal effigy stood. For the spikes had | Bature of the Virgin’s Kiss: pierced her eyes, and the sharp blades The bell had ceased—the trap-door had inflicted a thousand ghastly gashes | had closed again—the water, a moment upon her palpitating flesh——and still she | before crimsoned with blood, had borne lived ! away all traces of the diabolical catas- But in a few moments the trap-door | trophe ; and the tremendous machinery above the machinery opened of its own| was slowly revolving in a contrary di- accord, or rather in obedience to the | rection, so as to re-wind the ropes subtle mechanism, the infernal perfec- | around the cylinders and draw up the tion and wondrous ingenuity of which | weight in readiness for the receipt of guided this movement as well as all| the next victim. | those displayed by the Bronze Statue} But what of the Carmelite nun ?-— itself; and through the aperture caused | what of the two young pages ! by the opening of the trap-door, the ba-|. Qh- human language has no power roness fell from the interior of the co- | to describe the exquisite anguish with lossal image upon the top of the machi- | which this abhorrentspectacle had filled ery in the chamber beneath. theix souls—an anguish mingled with a She was still living at the moment fearful consternation—and a spectacle when she thus fell; but moans of excru- which would never {ail to haunt their os “ — + -* as =~ oes ek Then round went those huge cylin- ders, so thickly studded with ghastly ‘blades; round, round they went, set in motion first by the weight of the victim nant a E A. - oF ‘yo ee 7. ser Spies 5 Pe Ae Upon the sharp blades had the wret- ched woman fallen; and there for an instant, a single instant, had she writhed horribly—horribly. But at the next moment, as already stated, round went the huge cylinders, the blades hacking, and hewing, and cutting her form to pieces—literally to pieces. ‘l’hus, at the very first revolution of the upper- — _- comicbooks.com