Godolphin, Volume 6.Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
General
Godolphin, Volume 6.
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
otherwise, and I wandered over the world; but you shall know not," added
Lucilla, with a laugh of dreadful levity, "whither or with whom, for we
must have concealments, my love, as you will confess; and I strove to
forget you, and my brain sank in the effort. I felt my frame withering,
and they told me my doom was fixed, and I resolved to come to England, and
look on my first love once more; so I came, and I saw you, Godolphin; and
I knew, by the wrinkles in your brow, and the musing thought in your eye,
that your proud lot had not brought you content. And then there came to
me a stately shape, and I knew it for her for whom you had deserted me:
she told me, as you tell me, to live, to forget the past. Mockery,
mockery! But my heart is proud as hers, Percy, and I would not stoop to
the kindness of a triumphant rival; and I fled, what matters it whither?
But listen, Percy, listen; my woes have made me wise in that science which
is not of heart, and I knew that you and I must meet once more, and that
that meeting would be in this hour; and I counted, minute by minute, with
a savage gladness, the days that were to bring on this interview and my
death!" Then raising her voice into a wild shriek--"Beware, beware,
Percy!-the rush of waters is on my ear-the splash, the gurgle!--Beware!--
your last hour, also; is at hand!"
From the moment in which she uttered these words, Lucilla relapsed into
her former frantic paroxysms. Shriek followed shriek; she appeared to
know none around her, not even Godolphin. With throes and agony the soul
seemed to wrench itself from the frame. The hours swept on--midnight
came--clear and distinct the voice of the clock below reached that
chamber.
"Hush!" cried Lucilla, starting. "Hush!" and just at that moment,
through the window opposite, the huge clouds, breaking in one spot,
discovered high and far above them a solitary star.
"Thine, thine, Godolphin!" she shrieked forth, pointing to the lonely orb;
"it summons thee;--farewell, but not for long!"
* * * * *
* * * * *
* * * * *
The Moor rushed forward with a loud cry; she placed her hand on Lucilla's
bosom; the heart was still, the breath was gone, the fire had vanished
from the ashes: that strange unearthly spirit was perhaps with the stars
for whose mysteries it had so vainly yearned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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