When the gates were opened, Demetrius, with a heart over-flowing with
love and delight, was among the first to enter. He enquired of every one
he met of the fate of Isabelle; but all turned from him with disgust. At
length he found her out, but what was his grief and surprise--in a
nunnery! Firm to the troth she had so solemnly plighted, she had
rejected the proposition of her mercenary parent; and, having no idea but
that her lover had shared the fate of all Christian captives, she had
shut herself up from the world, and vowed to live the life of a vestal.
The surprise, the anguish, the horror of Isabelle, when she beheld
Demetrius in his Moslem habiliments, cannot be described. Her first
impulse, on finding him yet alive, was to have fallen into his arms; but,
instantly collecting herself, she shrunk back from him with loathing, as
a mean and paltry dastard. "No, no," she cried, "you are no longer the
man I loved; our vows of fidelity were pledged over the Bible; that book
you have renounced as a fable; and he who has proved himself false to
Heaven, can never be true to me!"
Demetrius was conscience-struck; too late he felt his crime, and foresaw
its consequences. The very object for whom he had dared to make the
tremendous sacrifice had deserted him, and his own soul told him with how
much justice; so, without uttering a syllable, he turned away,
heart-broken, from the holy and beautiful being whose affections he had
forfeited for ever.
When the patriots left Damascus, Isabelle accompanied them. Retiring to
Antioch, she lived with the sisterhood for many years; and, as her time
was passed between acts of charity and devotion, her bier was watered
with many a tear, and the hands of the grateful duly strewed her grave
with flowers. To Demetrius was destined a briefer career. All-conscious
of his miserable degradation, loathing himself, and life, and mankind, he
rushed back from the city into the Mahomedan camp; and entering, with a
hurried step, the tent of the Caliph, he tore the turban from his brow,
and cried aloud--"Oh, Abubeker! behold a God-forsaken wretch. Think not
it was the fear of death that led me to abjure my religion--the religion
of my fathers--the only true faith. No; it was the idol of Love that
stood between my heart and heaven, darkening the latter with its shadow;
and had I remained as true to God as I did to the Maiden of my love, I
had not needed this." So saying, and ere the hand of Abubeker could
arrest him, he drew a poniard from his embroidered vest, and the heart-
blood of the renegade spouted on the royal robes of the successor of
Mahomet.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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