Falkland, CompleteLytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
General
Falkland, Complete
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
Fiction
They separated as they had never done before. In Emily’s bosom there was
a dreary void--a vast blank-over which there went a low deep voice like
a Spirit’s--a sound indistinct and strange, that spoke a language she
knew not; but felt that it told of woe-guilt-doom. Her senses were
stunned: the vitality of her feelings was numbed and torpid: the first
herald of despair is insensibility. “Tomorrow then,” said Falkland--and
his voice for the first time seemed strange and harsh to her--“we
will fly hence for ever: meet me at daybreak--the carriage shall be in
attendance--we cannot now unite too soon--would that at this very moment
we were prepared!”--“To-morrow!” repeated Emily, “at daybreak!” and as
she clung to him, he felt her shudder: “to-morrow-ay-to-morrow!--” one
kiss--one embrace--one word--farewell--and they parted.
Falkland returned to L------, a gloomy foreboding rested upon his mind:
that dim and indescribable fear, which no earthly or human cause
can explain--that shrinking within self--that vague terror of the
future--that grappling, as it were, with some unknown shade--that
wandering of the spirit--whither?--that cold, cold creeping dread--of
what? As he entered the house, he met his confidential servant. He gave
him orders respecting the flight of the morrow, and then retired into
the chamber where he slept. It was an antique and large room: the
wainscot was of oak; and one broad and high window looked over the
expanse of country which stretched beneath. He sat himself by the
casement in silence--he opened it: the dull air came over his forehead,
not with a sense of freshness, but, like the parching atmosphere of the
east, charged with a weight and fever that sank heavy into his soul. He
turned:--he threw himself upon the bed, and placed his hands over his
face. His thoughts were scattered into a thousand indistinct forms, but
over all, there was one rapturous remembrance; and that was, that
the morrow was to unite him for ever to her whose possession had only
rendered her more dear. Meanwhile, the hours rolled on; and as he lay
thus silent and still, the clock of the distant church struck with
a distinct and solemn sound upon his ear. It was the half-hour after
midnight. At that moment an icy thrill ran, slow and curdling, through
his veins. His heart, as if with a presentiment of what was to follow,
beat violently, and then stopped; life itself seemed ebbing away; cold
drops stood upon his forehead; his eyelids trembled, and the balls
reeled and glazed, like those of a dying man; a deadly fear gathered
over him, so that his flesh quivered, and every hair in his head seemed
instinct with a separate life, the very marrow of his bones crept, and
his blood waxed thick and thick, as if stagnating into an ebbless and
frozen substance. He started in a wild and unutterable terror. There
stood, at the far end of the room, a dim and thin shape like moonlight,
without outline or form; still, and indistinct, and shadowy. He gazed
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