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Show 2G6 BJCifAHD IIUlWJS. "You will not!" \Vith one wild, piercing shriek, she rent the air, wllile toss ing J1er arms above l1er head, she rushed out of the room and into the passage. Then I !J ea rd a dend, heavy f<tll; and, n~sl1ing after her, I found l1er prostrate at the foot of the sta1rs, as ut terly lifeless as if a cleaving bolt IHtd been driven tln·ot1gh her l1cart. THE MANIAC. CHAPTER XXXIX. THE MANIAC. "What/ lhon hnst fl ed his aide in time or clnngcr, Thnt clung to him in fortune/ Oh I cruel lt·enchery; he hnd not done t!Jce 8o foul n Wl'ong ns this. Away, nud lcnve me."-1'/le Paragon, I FOLr,owr.o her with all haste and raised her from the floor. My cries brought her mother to l1er :tssistance-a venerable and wortlty dame, whom years and disease had driven almost entirely to her ch:unber. She received It er d:mgltter at my l~tuHls in an almost lifeless condition. I assisted in bearing tho poor maiden to her room; and after g iving the mother a. brief account of what lmd taken Jllace-for tl1e circumstances of the ~;cene would admit of no tno1·e-I left her for my father's habitation. I shall not undertake to describe my misery that night. 'l'he thought, that, in my want of resolution, my haste, my imperfect judgment, I had given a death-stroke to the }JOOr heart that I l1nd seen so paralyzed in a single in stant before my eyes, was little less than horrible to me. It was a constant and stalking terror in my eyes. In my dreams, I beheld tiJC bloody body of VVilliam Carrington, and tbe lifeless form of Emmeline beside it, st retclwd out in the same damp, cold bed of death. If I awakened, my active fancy represented a thousand similar obj ects-familiar forms lying and gasping in all the agonies of dissolution, or crouching in terror, as if beneath some sudden bolt or blow. In all these visions I never lost sight of the living and real scene of misery through which I had so recently gone. At first, the sm iling, hopeful face of Emmeline rose before me; and I could distinguish the devoted love in the look that nsked after her betrothed, when her lips refused all question. '!'hen rose the wonder why he came not-then the doubt |
