The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 156: what you’re looking at

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

THE STEAM PACKET. 115 = No—not now, not now!” she cried, with a species of horror in her voice and manner: “to-night at eleven—till then adieu! ’’, With these words she hurried out of the room; and De Renal re- turned to his own abode, to meditate upon the successful result of his schemes, the felicity which awaited him, and the triumph he appeared to have obtained over a haughty but beauteous woman. He feasted his imagination with the most voluptuous :anticipations: he thought upon ma conjectured all the charms and attractions of that fine and faultless form; and he revelled in hopes of coming joy, and dreams of bliss near at hand, until his mind was wrought to a state of excitement | almost bordering upon frenzy. Up rose the moon that night, in a clear sky, and in fellowship with myriads of beauteous stars; and the chaste light fell upon the tall tower of the cathedral, and bathed in silver lustre the sleeping town. The chimes of the church proclaimed the three quarters past ten; and the dark form of a man passed rapidly from the ramparts into the churchyard, where he lay concealed behind a buttress until the same iron tongue rang forth the hour of eleven. Ere the last stroke was told, that form emerged from its lurking-place, and sprang nimbly upon the wall, by the aid of some loose stones at its base. That wall joined one aeté of the house already so often mentioned in this nar- rative, Atthe same moment a window, about three feet above the wall, was heard to open genily. | “De Renal—is that you?’ demanded the melodious voice of Marie. ““ Yes, beloved one !—it is I, faithful to my appointment,” was the answer. At that instant, as he stood upright on the wall, he felt something -eold touch his forehead. “* Marie & “Villain, receive the recompense of your cowardice towards an unprotected woman!” were the last words that ever met the surgeon’s ear: the report of a pistol echoed around—and a heavy weight fell into the churchyard. It was the corpse of De Renal: his brains were literally blown out. The body was found; but the activity of the ree was in vain exercised to discover the means by which the surgeon came by his death. Six years afterwards—when the matter was forgotten—a priest (for priests exercised their functions then again in France) was sum- moned to attend the death-bed of the unfortunate Marie; and the substance of the preceding narrative was found amongst her papers, written by her own hand, after her decease. I 2 Eomichooks