Beautiful Rienzi; or, The secret vendetta — page 252: what you’re looking at

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

BEAUTIFUL RIENZI 247 other face there until, while I was singing, I saw like a phantom before me the countenance of my husband, white, angry, accusing—and I fainted. | <‘T recovered to find myself in Cecil’s arms, far away on a moonlit road, in a sleigh, which was dashing onward. ‘«< My strength was all gone; I could no longer bear his embraces and words of burning love and triumph, with for- titude, and yet I had no strength to repel him. ‘¢T wept in silence and misery, until he, jealous madman! began to rail at Victor Joselyn, and accuse me of still loving him. ‘Then the infatuated boy recounted an interview which he had with Victor Joselyn, in which he boasted of my inconstancy; how he found that Victor had come to New York, Ido not know. He told me what struck the last blow to my endurance. : ‘I poured forth, with the insulted, indignant impru- dence of a woman, the whole of the bitter story. «The last word wasreached. We were crossing a bridge. He stood up and gfasped my hand. Until then, blinding tears had hidden his face from me. It was disturbed, and chiseled into a convulsed-stare of horror. «©<That ends all, then!’ he muttered; ‘ good-by.’ <‘ Instantly he sprang from the sleigh to the frail bridge rail, for a moment he waved his arms wildly, and then leaped down, with a frantic laugh, into the shallow, rocky stream. ‘¢ Almost at the same instant, as if earth was convulsed with the horror which I felt, a dull, tremulous explosion filled the air, and the crashing of rocks smote a thousand echoes; the horse, affrighted and unrestrained, leaped madly on, and I sank shrieking to the bottom of the sleigh. I was whirled impetuously on, until the horse fell down ex- hausted, and covered with foam, and I was dashed with great violence out on the ground, the sleigh overturning, and scarcely bruising me. | ‘¢ At first I was stunned, but soon rallied and rose. I could not tell where I was, the road was not in sight, and the wild, snow-covered heath stretched round me. ‘¢ By the full light of the moon, I ran feebly back on the track which the sleigh had cut, to find the bridge. I wan- dered on and on, staggering blindly, and shouting for help, CORNUCG OOO S (©)