The Lock and Key Library: Classic Mystery and Detective Stories: Old Time English
General
The Lock and Key Library: Classic Mystery and Detective Stories: Old Time English
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction; Ghost stories
son, if Maximilian were he, as connected, probably, with the fate
and fortunes of this majestic beauty; somewhat haughty, perhaps, in
the expression of her fine features, but still noble--generous--
confiding. Laying the picture on the table, I awoke Maximilian,
and told him of the dreadful news. He listened attentively, made
no remark, but proposed that we should go together to the meeting
of our quarter at the Black Friars. He colored upon observing the
miniature on the table; and, therefore, I frankly told him in what
situation I had found it, and that I had taken the liberty of
admiring it for a few moments. He pressed it tenderly to his lips,
sighed heavily, and we walked away together.
I pass over the frenzied state of feeling in which we found the
meeting. Fear, or rather horror, did not promote harmony; many
quarreled with each other in discussing the suggestions brought
forward, and Maximilian was the only person attended to. He
proposed a nightly mounted patrol for every district. And in
particular he offered, as being himself a member of the university,
that the students should form themselves into a guard, and go out
by rotation to keep watch and ward from sunset to sunrise.
Arrangements were made toward that object by the few people who
retained possession of their senses, and for the present we
separated.
Never, in fact, did any events so keenly try the difference between
man and man. Some started up into heroes under the excitement.
Some, alas for the dignity of man! drooped into helpless
imbecility. Women, in some cases, rose superior to men, but yet
not so often as might have happened under a less mysterious danger.
A woman is not unwomanly because she confronts danger boldly. But
I have remarked, with respect to female courage, that it requires,
more than that of men, to be sustained by hope; and that it droops
more certainly in the presence of a MYSTERIOUS danger. The fancy
of women is more active, if not stronger, and it influences more
directly the physical nature. In this case few were the women who
made even a show of defying the danger. On the contrary, with THEM
fear took the form of sadness, while with many of the men it took
that of wrath.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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