Bungay Castle: A Novel. v. 1/2Bonhote, Mrs. (Elizabeth)
General
Bungay Castle: A Novel. v. 1/2
Bonhote, Mrs. (Elizabeth)
English fiction -- 18th century
The service began;--the coffin was carefully let down into the grave,
and, just as the earth was thrown upon it, and the priest pronounced
that awful and humiliating sentence,--"Earth to earth, ashes to ashes,
dust to dust," a figure, with dishevelled hair, and a face pale as that
of the victim just deposited in her last sad resting place, rushed past
them all, and quick as lightening, before any one could suspect of think
of preventing his design, threw himself with the utmost violence into
the grave, and, clinging with agonizing frenzy to the coffin, cried out,
"I have found her now, and no one shall ever again tear her from me, for
she was mine,--mine by her own consent! Proceed, (added he, in a shrill
and distracted tone, for the surprise and confusion that this scene
occasioned had prevented the service going on,)--be quick, and hide me
in the friendly earth!--I come to sleep with Lucy:--this is our bridal
bed!--Why do you hesitate?--here I shall find rest for ever:--this is my
home, and here shall be my heaven!"
The priest endeavoured to persuade him to quit the grave, and let the
ceremony be concluded, telling him, time and patience would, he hoped,
reconcile him to the will of heaven, and convince him that all things
were ordered for the best and the wisest purposes.
"Avaunt, deceiver! (cried the enraged maniac.)--I tell you that Lucy was
unfairly robbed of life,--stolen from my arms, and forced into this
place, where I will watch by her and protect her from farther
violence;--therefore say no more, lest my daring hand should attempt to
pluck the sun from his orbit, or call upon the stars to fall upon your
head, and mine for permitting a star more brilliant than themselves to
fall.--Go on, I say,--bury me deep and sure!--I wish to become a worm,
that I may crawl to the side of Lucy.--She will own her poor distracted
Narford, even in that most loathsome and degraded form."
It is impossible to describe the scene that followed. Many attempts were
made before the poor young man could be dragged from the grave of his
lamented mistress.--At length, he was forcibly taken out,--guarded, and
carried home by some of the weeping spectators.
It was many months before any hopes of his recovery could be cherished.
His reason was still more endangered, and, from that period to the end
of his unfortunate life, he was deranged at times, and by his conduct
appeared as much a lunatic in his intervals of reason. He very soon
squandered all that remained of his fortune, and became a wanderer upon
the earth, never having a settled home, and seldom going into a bed.
He was frequently absent so long, that his friends concluded he was no
more.--He would then return to those scenes which never failed to bring
on a renewal of his unfortunate malady, and would lay whole nights by
the side of Lucy's grave, talking to her with the fame ardour and
enthusiastic affection as if she had been living.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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