Tales and Stories: Now First CollectedShelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
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Tales and Stories: Now First Collected
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
English fiction -- 19th century; Short stories, English
Late that night they reached the destined châlet, and found Monsieur de
Marville arrived. It was a half-ruined miserable habitation perched
among the snows, cold and bare; food was ill to be obtained, and danger
breathed around them. Fanny attended on them with assiduous care, but
she never spoke of the scene in the village; and though she strove to
look the same, Henry never addressed her but she grew pale, and her
voice trembled. She could not divine her absent lover’s thoughts, but
she knew that he believed her married to another; and that other,
earnestly though she strove to rule her feelings, became an object of
abhorrence to her.
Three weeks they passed in this wretched abode; three weeks replete with
alarm, for the district around was in arms, and the life of Monsieur de
Marville loudly threatened. They never slept but they dreaded the
approach of the murderers; food they had little, and the inclement
season visited them roughly. Fanny seemed to feel no inconvenience; her
voice was cheerful: to console, encourage, and assist her friends
appeared to occupy her whole heart. At length one night they were roused
by a violent knocking at the door of their hut: Monsieur de Marville and
Henry were on their feet in a moment, seizing their weapons as they
rose. It was a domestic of their own, come to communicate the
intelligence that the troubles were over, that the legal government had
reasserted its authority, and invited the governor to return to Berne.
They descended from their mountain refuge, and the name of Louis hovered
on Fanny’s lips, but she spoke it not. He seemed everywhere forgotten.
It was not until some time afterwards that she ascertained the fact that
he had never been seen or heard of since he had parted from her on the
morning of their escape. The villagers had waited for him in vain; they
suspended their designs, for they all depended upon him; but he came
not.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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