Feudal tyrants; or, The Counts of Carlsheim and Sargans, volume 3 (of 4)Naubert, Benedikte
General
Feudal tyrants; or, The Counts of Carlsheim and Sargans, volume 3 (of 4)
Naubert, Benedikte
German fiction -- Translations into English
Helen heard from her prison the noise of the assault, the shouts of the
victors, and the expiring groans of those who fell beneath their swords;
but her spirit was too much broken to enable her to guess at what was
passing, or to offer up prayers or wishes for the success of either
party. She lay almost in a state of insensibility, when the door of her
dungeon was thrown open. The Count of Carlsheim entered, snatched her
rudely from the earth, and more by gestures than speech, commanded her
attendance. She followed her conductor in silence, like a lamb to the
slaughter; he saw, that she was scarcely able to move through weakness,
and either out of compassion or cruelty compelled her to swallow a
cordial. She gradually recovered herself sufficiently to remark, that
her husband was habited like a pilgrim on the point of setting out on
some long journey, and that he guided her towards a part of the Castle
remote from the clamour of the combat. Here they found a domestic
waiting with a torch, who in a low voice and with few words assured his
Lord, that the passage was still safe. A door, artfully concealed in the
wall, was now unlocked, and Helen was commanded to ascend the
stair-case, which presented itself before her.
She was too wreak, too hopeless, to think it worth while to make any
reflections on Donat’s unaccountable conduct in regaining the upper
apartments of the fortress, (which, she was convinced, was already in
the enemy’s possession,) instead of employing these precious moments to
effect his escape. They now arrived at the door of that chamber, which
concealed the entrance to the subterraneous passages: the touch of a
single key was sufficient to make all the seven locks fly back. Donat
entered, and compelled his unhappy wife to follow him; he then took the
torch from the domestic, and commanded him to execute his orders without
delay, and then to provide for his own safety. The servant bowed, and
retired.
Now then Helen was at length in that very spot, which she had so
anxiously wished to visit, but not with such a companion. Donat paused
for a moment; and she could hear distinctly, that the domestic fastened
the door through which she had entered, not omitting a single lock. Her
tyrant left her no time for reflecting on the purpose for which she had
been conducted hither; he hastened to unclose the secret door which led
to Urania’s baths, dragged her through it, and then commanded her to
proceed, having first taken care to fasten the door after him.
Helen obeyed, and as she moved slowly forwards, through the
subterraneous passages, she observed that her husband occasionally
examined the side-walls with his hand or foot. At length he stopped
before a small door half sunk in the ground; he forced it open with a
violence which shook the whole cavern, and held his torch within, in
order to examine it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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