Gothic fiction; Ireland -- History -- Rebellion of 1798 -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Romans à clef
His face, his features, were the same, it is true; but a deeper shade of
sadness now overspread them; and sorrow and disappointment had changed
the glow of boyish health to a more pallid hue. What! in a month? it
will be said.—A day might, perhaps, have done it. However, in the present
instance, it was not as if some sudden and defined misfortune had opprest
the soul by a single blow: it was rather as if every early hope had
long been blighted; and every aspiring energy had been destroyed. There
was nothing pleasing to gaze upon: it was mournful; but it excited not
sympathy, nor confidence. The arm was in a sling—the left arm. There
could be no doubt that he was the hero who had risked his life to save
young Linden. Was it, indeed, Lord Glenarvon whom Calantha beheld? Yes,
it was himself.—Face to face she stood before him, and gazed with eager
curiosity upon him.
Never did the hand of the Sculptor, in the full power of his art, produce
a form and face more finely wrought, so full of soul, so ever-varying in
expression. Was it possible to behold him unmoved? Oh! was it in woman’s
nature to hear him, and not to cherish every word he uttered? And,
having heard him, was it in the human heart ever again to forget those
accents, which awakened every interest, and quieted every apprehension?
The day, the hour, that very moment of time was marked and destined. It
was Glenarvon—it was that spirit of evil whom she beheld; and her soul
trembled within her, and felt its danger.
Calantha was struck suddenly, forcibly struck; yet the impression made
upon her, was not in Glenarvon’s favour. The eye of the rattle-snake, it
has been said, once fixed upon its victim, overpowers it with terror and
alarm: the bird, thus charmed, dares not attempt its escape; it sings
its last sweet lay; flutters its little pinions in the air; then falls
like a shot before its destroyer, unable to fly from his fascination.
Calantha bowed, therefore with the rest, pierced to the heart at once by
the maddening power that destroys alike the high and low; but she liked
not the wily turn of his eye, the contemptuous sneer of his curling
lip, the soft passionless tones of his voice;—it was not nature, or if
it was nature, not that to which she had been accustomed;—not the open,
artless expression of a guileless heart.
Starting from the kind of dream in which she had for one moment been
wrapped, she now looked around her. The affectation with which she veiled
the interest she felt, is scarce accountable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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