 | CHAPTER II. Black Ralph, or, The helmsman of Hurlgate |  |
2. CHAPTER II.
After the departure of Louis to the quay,
and when he had finally disappeared from her
view, the young Countess Josephine retired to
her chamber, which overlooked the channel,
to give vent to her mortification alone. She
felt that she fondly loved her sailor-cousin,
and that her happiness was intimately involved
in the issue of this love. As a woman
she felt wounded vanity, that her charms produced
upon him so light an effect, and that
her powers of pleasing were not sufficiently
great, to do away from his tenacious mind,
the memory of her father's tyranny.
`I will yet conquer this foolish prejudice
in Louis,' she said with spirit, dashing an unbidden
tear from her eye, `he has a noble nature,
a generous warm heart, and if woman's
love can win it without overstepping the
limits of maidenly beseeming, Josephine de
Fernay shall yet reign its mistress. I know I
have a great task before me, trammelled as I
am by a maiden's reserve, but I do not despair
one day seeing him, proud and wilful
as he now is, sueing at my feet.'
Thus determining, this gentle girl, in
whom profound and intense love had suddenly
awakened a resolute and active spirit, walked
to her window to watch the progress of the
ships of war, with the movements of which
she now began to feel her own happiness was
so closely interested.
The detached masses of clouds which all
that sultry afternoon had hung low over the
channel, alternately falling in dense columns
of rain, or sailing along with gleams of sunshine
darting between upon the sea, had now
gathered in a huge embankment above the
promontory which the line-of-battle ship and
frigate were doubling. It was driven across
the sky by a strong south wind, and as Josephine
looked forth she saw that it covered
half the southwest, and threatened a thunder
storm. As its shadow swept along the
water, she saw the fishing-boats hoist their
small brown sails, and run for Calais and the
nearest shore; and farther out from land the
large vessels which in great numbers dotted
the channel sailing on all courses, take in
their lighter sails, and signifying their preparations
for the coming danger.
Turning from them, her eyes watched with
a new and deeper interest the movements of
the ships of war. They were both a full
league to windward, and being nearer the
source of the tempest, the other vessels would
feel it first. She saw, however, that they had
yet made no preparations for it; that the line
ship carried her main and fore-sky-sails, and
that the frigate had everything set from deck
to truck; for the wind was still light and fitful.
They were evidently fully aware of the
coming storm, though partly sheltered from it
by the promentory they had just doubled, and
were taking advantage of the little breeze
that blew, to try and reach anchorage ground
in the outer road of Calais, before it should
burst upon them. This was the opinion of
Louis, who seeing the gathering clouds had
reined up about half a mile from the Chateau
upon a point of land washed by the
waves, to take a view of the vessels and for a
few moments to watch their motions.
Slowly and majestically the line of battle
ship followed by the frigate a cable's length
astern, approached the offing of the Chateau,
and not half a mile distant in a direct line.
Josephine could see distinctly the men moving
about in her rigging, the officers in uniform
upon their quarter decks, and at intervals
as the wind died away the far off cry of
the leadsman as the ships felt their way along
the shore, which in that neighborhood was
rendered dangerous by sunken ledges. She
was so much interested and wrapt up in
watching their progress that she did not take
notice of the rapid and powerful march of the
tempest of clouds which came triumphantly
on, like `an army with banners.' She was
only recalled to it, by the sudden darkness
that grew around her, and a flash and crash
of thunder that shook the rock upon which
the Chateau was founded, till it reeled. The
lightning blinded her for an instant and the
thunder had so confused her senses, that it
was several seconds before she could recover
her recollection and command self-possession
to look around her. When she did so, she
beheld a stream of flame rising like a me
teor from the foremost of the line-of-battle
ship, and darting high into the murky heavens
which were now all overcast, save a fine
bright space far to leward towards which, the
edges streaming like hair flown out in the
wind. She gazed with silent horror as the
flame grew larger, and shot higher, and its
lurid glare fell reflected in a long red line
across the water. As she looked, she saw it
fork outward, seize the mainmast, and wrapt
it in flames, and then dart like a fiery serpent
along the cordage in all directions till the
whole of the loftier sails and spars of the majestic
battle ship, were enveloped in fire and
rolling clouds of black smoke that in darkness
and horror seemed to mock the storm clouds
that rolled on above, upon the wings of the
wind.
As yet there had been no wind in motion,
in the lower stratum of the atmosphere, though
the velocity with which the tempest was
sweeping above the channel, showed the
strength of the blast that raged in the region
in which it reigned. The slight breeze which
had held until a few moments before the fall
of the thunderbolt upon the ill-fated ship was
now followed by a profound calm—the sure
precursor of the wild commotion of the elements
that was to follow; in this silence the
roar and crackling of the flames reached the
terrified maiden, and ever and anon came
shoreward a wild confusion of sounds of human
voices.
`Ha, the frigate is warping away from her,'
said the Marquis, pressing with energy his
niece's arm, having flown to her chamber on
hearing the near peal of thunder, and approached
the window undiscovered some moments
before, where he had stood so absorbed
in the sight of the burning vessel, as to forget
to address her or give her notice of his
presence until now.
`My dearest uncle,' she cried with trembling
and gratitude, `I am so glad you are
here. This spectacle is horrible.'
`It is my child! Yet how sublime in its
horror. Oh, the wives made widows this
hour.'
`Will they perish then? Cannot the other
ship save them? Oh, God, let not so many
creatures, made in thine own image, thus
miserably perish in the sight of their haven!'
cried the maiden, lifting her hands and eyes
imploringly to Heaven.
`I fear many will be lost. The frigate is
hauling off from her out of reach of the flames,
lest she may share the same fate. See the
topsails have caught, and the burning masses
are falling upon the deck and into the sea.
Hark! there is a gun! another! They call
loudly for aid that ne'er can reach them!
Another gun! Hark! there peals the thunder,
Heaven's artillery mingling its sublime roars.
What a scene and hour of sublimity. Oh,
this is fearful!'
`Cannot we aid them! See they lower
boats on every side, and they are fast filling
with men! Look! how madly they leap into
them, and methinks as many miss them and
fall into the water as into the boats! What
an agonizing scene! Yet I cannot turn my
eye away, while my heart seems to burst with
its wild efforts to implore Heaven's mercy for
them. Cannot, Oh! cannot, we save them
uncle?'
`No, my child! I, alas, am too old to venture
in a boat if we had one! You cannot
aid them. Listen! The tocsin is sounded
in Calais! What a glorious glad sound that!
The city is up! And see the frigate's boats
are approaching to their consort's relief with
the speed of all their oars. The most of
them will be saved if the storm withholds its
approach a quarter of an hour longer.'
`Oh, for a prophet's arm and prayer at this
hour to intercede for them and bid it stay!'
cried the maiden earnestly, as her eyes were
cast upon the black heavens, which threatened
each moment to burst with all their
magazines of destructive elements upon the
hundreds of her fellow beings, now either
combating with the flames or exposed in the
boats.
The fire had now reached the forcastle,
and wrapped it in a sheet of flames. The
boats had all been lowered, as fast as they
were filled with the men, put off at a short
distance from the ship, and there lay on their
oars. The frigate's boats came with timely
relief and took off many others, but ere they
were all rescued, the tempest which had been
seen a few moments before to strike the sea
half a league astern of the vessels, now came
on with a resistless fury, driving before it
perfect cataract of foam many feet high.
Guns were rapidly discharged from the frigate,
recalling the boats with their crews,
several of which that were nearest reached it
in time for shelter; but nine boats containing
four hundred men were still exposed;
and, unable to reach the frigate, rowed, impelled
by fear, for the shore. Many, including
the officers, were still on board the burning
ship with the storm within half a mile,
which rendered almost inaudible the thunder.
The frigate had previously taken in all
her light sail and reduced herself to a close
reefed fore and mizzen top-sail and gib. She
had time to get the few boats in, that safely
reached her when the tempest struck her.
She was laying at the instant with her weather
quarter to the direction of its approach,
and the first shock threw her almost flat upon
her beam-ends, and completely enveloped her
hull in a cloud of foam and spray. She
plunged terribly to recover herself from the
imminent peril of her situation, and after
seeming once or twice as if she would have
foundered bows foremost under the waves
and gone bodily down, she righted, shook off
the showering spray and bending to the blast,
drove before it under her top-sails, without
the loss of a single spar, or the parting of a
with deep interest not only by the Marquis
and his neice, but also with the intensest
anxiety by young Louis, who from the headland
where he had lingered, had seen as well
as his cousin all we have described. The
frigate was soon lost to sight, driving in the
roar of the storm, and now the spectators
from the chatean and the young horseman,
who had remained seated in his saddle, almost
paralysed at the spectacle of the burning
battle ship, turned their attention to this
ill-fated vessel.
`Execrations upon the dastards!' cried
Louis, as he beheld from his post several
barges which had come out from Calais to
their relief, put back for the storm.
The ship's boat, loaded to the water's edge,
were pulling from it towards the shore as if
life—as truly it did—hung on every dip of
their swiftly flashing oars. The ship was
now, except the quarter-deck and waste, enveloped
in sheets of flame. The guns of
distress had long since ceased to be discharged.
But the heat now ignited the powder,
and those on the forecastle-deck began
to fire themselves as the tempest came on.
The scene was now terrific, too appallingly
sublime for human eyes to endure—for the
human heart to fear! The heavens had grown
black as midnight, and wild with the driving
storm, their agitated surface livid with excitement,
lightning its vast concave, echoing
and re-echoing with thunder! The sea for
leagues to the windward, was white with
foam, and mingling its roars with shrieking
winds! The conflagration of the battle-ship
spread a baleful glare on land, water and
sky, and the incessant discharge by the flames
of its heavy ordonance, with the shouts of
despair or encouragement that were heard at
intervals, added new terrors to the scene.
In the midst of this reign of death and horror,
the officers of the battle-ship had all retained
their coolness and self-command.
Their attention had first been given to the
safety of the men, and their authority had
been only exercised to this end, when it was
discovered the conflagration could not be
stayed, and that the flames were rapidly enveloping
her. They had seen all the boats
filled, and ordered them to lay off at a safe
distance to await the issue. Thus the storm
which they trusted would hold back a while,
was close at hand, and threatening to fall
upon them before they had taken any thought
of themselves. There were seventeen officers
including the commodore, and eighty men
still on board; the latter crowded fearful,
yet under discipline, upon the quarter-deck or
in the waist. There were two more boats
still attached to the ship, one afloat and the
other a life-boat, in the mizzen rigging. In
a few minutes they felt that their fate would
be sealed. They saw the boats on all sides
hastening to the shelter either of the frigate
or the land, and the commander, with emotion,
gave orders for deserting the brave ship
he had commanded in so many battles. The
order was obeyed with alacrity, yet without
disorder. The boat was brought along side,
and the seamen ordered to get into it. It held
but seventy.
`Let the remaining ten take the life-boat
with the officers,' said the commander. `Put
off there in the boat and make for the shore
before the storm bursts upon you. Now
launch the life-boat.' It soon floated light
beside the ship. The heat now became so
intense, and the danger grew so imminent
from the blazing spars and canvass, that fell
in showers about them, that the officers and
men were instantly ordered to enter the boat.
`I will be the last man on the deck of Le
Minerve. Come, my child,' he said, taking
in his embrace a lovely girl of nineteen, who
had hitherto been reclining as he gave his
orders, almost insensible upon his shoulder.
`Oh Henri—the prisoner! the prisoner!
oh, my father,' she shrieked. disengaging
herself from him and clinging to a stay with
both hands. `Will you be so cruel as to
murder him thus.'
`No—good God, no! I had forgotten him.
He is confined in the gun-room! Who will
release him. If a seaman, he shall have a
hundred louido'r—if an officer, promotion.
`A brand has fallen against the magazine
door, and half burned it through,' exclaimed
a sailor, returning with breathless terror.
`Then he must perish,' cried the com
mander; into the boat all, and pull for your
lives. De Saussuse, take my daughter from
me!'
`No---no---he shall not perish,' cried the
young lady with determined energy.
And as she spoke she broke from her father
and the officer who was lifting her into the
boat, and flew across the heated deck amid
the roar of guns, the crackling of flames and
the terrors of so appalling a scene as that
wild conflagration presented. She descended
into the sumptuous state cabins now deserted
and in confusion, and opening a trapdoor,
descended still farther to a deck below.
She heard the voice and footstep of her frantic
parent in pursuit, and dropped the trapdoor
leaving herself in darkness. Her foot
had trodden there before in silence and darkness,
and well she knew how, in danger, to
find the place she sought. She had to go
forward some distance along a narrow passage.
The roar of flames, and the thunder
of canon above and around her was fearful,
yet she trembled not.
`No, he shall not perish, or I perish by his
side, she repeated energetically. The air
was close and hot, and charged with smoke,
so that it was with difficulty she could breathe.
Still she pursued her intricate way to the
the huge fabric of the ship to its centre,
and the upper decks above her head were
torn open their whole length, and the confined
atmosphere rushing out ignited with instant
combustion. The masts had fallen, carrying
the decks with them! For an instant she
stopped to recover from the shock, and then
darting down a ladder, flew across the gundeck,
her way lighted by flames darting into
the port-holes, and came to a door in an oaken
wainscott. To her surprise it was unbarred
and open.
`Oh Henri! Henri! she shrieked, with a
cry between joy and hope.
`Madeline, bless God, is it you who have
made this sacrifice for me?' answered a young
man who was lying in an open cell chained to
a bolt.
`And should it not be me, from whom you
have been thus cruelly confined! Come, fly
with me! Life hangs upon a thread! The
ship is in flames!'
`So a seaman informed me, who, humanely
as he fled by, threw open my door; but I
could not move! Fly, dear Madeline. Save
your own life, and leave me to perish!'
`I live only in you—and if you die I die!'
`This is madness.'
`Let me see your chains. They are fastened
to this bolt. Let us with our united
strength try and draw it from the deck. See,
it is loose, and may yield!'
The words of hope—the love of life, inspired
him, though against hope, to make the effort.
Once, twice, thrice, was their combined
strength exerted, and the fourth time the bolt
yielded!—for love and life are strong.
`Now fly—we may yet live for each other!'
cried the noble girl taking him by the hand,
and dragging him from the spot. `Fly, for
the conflagration has reached within a few
feet of us. A moment's delay, and we are
both lost.'
The young officer—for such his uniform bespoke
him—smiled faintly as the red glare of
the flames shone through the door, upon his
features, and he pointed to his fetters.
`See, Madeline, I cannot walk. My feet
are chained together!'
`My cruel father!' she cried in despair.
`But you must not perish. No, no! I have
strength—I have energy—I will bear you
hence in safety.'
`No, rather let me die here. Save your
own dear life, while there is yet time.'
`Only with your life do I save my own, she
answered decidedly. `I am strong—God will
aid me—I will save you! Come, dearest
Henri, let me bear you in my arms.'
`And whither?' he asked, between doubt
and despair. `Hear the roar of the flames!—
feel the heat of the deck above us!—hark!
the gun within ten feet of us has discharged
itself!—how can you alone, how can we both
escape but to perish in a watery grave!'
`The life-boat is waiting. My father would
never leave the ship without me! I can bear
you along the decks as I came! The flames
may burn me—the heat may scorch my face
—but I shall heed nothing so that I save you.
Oh, Henri, if you love me, yield!'
`I do,' he answered as a loud crash told the
falling in of a portion of the main deck: `Heaven
nerve you to the task, noble creature.'
`Love never doubts,' she answered, taking
him in her arms—for confinement and illness
had made him lighter than he otherwise would
have been. The burden was heavy, but energy
and resolution with the thought of all she
was striving for, made it light. Bearing him
along the deck by the way she bad come she
reached the ladder in safety. This he ascended
himself with ease without her aid. On
gaining the next deck she found the tempest
had burst upon the ship, and that the flames
of the crushed decks which she expected to
have to meet were extinguished by deluges
of spray that broke over the ship and poured
in torrents into the holds. The roar of the
hurricane was now deafening above and
around them, and instead of smoke and fire,
the heroic girl with her burden had to force
her way by wading along the decks in deep
water. She however, was undismayed, and
thanking heaven for this temporary suspension
of the conflagration in her pathway, she
retraced her steps towards the foot of the ladder
leading to the trap door of the state cabin
by which she had first descended. But here
she encountered new flames from the fierce
effects of which her loose garments, thrown
around her face and that of the helpless and
fettered young man, in a measure protected
her. At every foot-fall as she advanced she
could feel the ship rock and heave beneath
her as the storm shook its massive frame, and
momently she feared it would part and engulf
them. She reached with him the ladder
and the state room in safety.
`Now one more effort and we are upon the
quarter deck and shall know our fate,' she said.
`Nay, Henri—this is no time for you to say I
shall carry you no further.'
`The ship reels as if she were foundering,'
said the young man, with energy; `Oh these
fetters that make me at this hour dependant
for life on one who needs my protection for
her own safety. Cannot you find me a file,
Madeline? I would die at least free.'
`Before you could use a file we should perish.
Here, oh, here are the keys! Behold!
Now you are free!' she joyfully exclaimed,
her eye having caught sight of several bunches
of keys hanging over the captain's transum,
one of which she knew was that entrusted to
the keeper of the prisoners, and flew to obtain.
`Thank God for this mercy,' said the youth
as he discovered among them several keys for
fetters He tried one—it would not fit the
ward of his own;—another and another with
equal want of success.
`Will Heaven let you perish with liberty
and life thus within your grasp,' she cried
with anguish; `come, let me bear you to the
deck, and if my father has deserted me we can
at least die, as he has forbid us to live together,'
she cried, embracing him passionately.
`No, we shall both yet live and be blessed,
another key proved successful. `See! I am
free!' and casting aside his heavy chains he
stood upon his feet and caught her to his heart.
`Now, now, I am to be your preserver, not
you mine!'
She clasped her hands with gratitude, and
falling upon his shoulder wept the full tide of
her joy. Thus he raised her up and hastened
with her to the deck.
Fearful and wild beyond description was the
scene that met his eyes. The sea around him
was boiling with foam, and the mad wind was
sweeping over it with a deafening roar! The
skies were black as midnight save when riven
by the forked lightning, and the mingled thunder
and wind and roar of the waves formed a
sound such as human ears had never before
heard. No land was visible for the murky
gloom that made sky and water seem to meet
close around them. Through this empire
of the king of the tempests the hull of
the line of battle ship was driving furiously;
rolling this side and that like a drunken man,
but still plunging onward to its destiny. The
masts, sails and spars had all been consumed,
and the bowsprit and bows were only now on
fire—the sea, which had been swept over her
at the onset of the storm, having put out the
conflagration further aft. The flames of the
bows instead of ascending or turning towards
the stern were driven straight forward by the
force of the winds, notwithstanding the velocity
at which the ship herself was driven.
On the quarter deck all was confusion and
rum, and the charred deck and bulwarks,
showed that those who had last stood there
had fitally been driven from it by the flames,
before they were extinguished by the waves.
The young man having taken a hasty view of
the scene and his position, felt that there was
now little chance of life—for he knew the ship
in those waters could not drive far without
going ashore, and shipwreck in such a storm
presented few chances for escape. He sighed
as he gazed upon the pale and exhausted girl
who had risked so much for his safety, and to
whom he now owed his life. She looked up
and raised her head from his shoulder, upon
which she had leaned insensible since he had
left the state room with her, and as divining
his thoughts said, as he bent his car closely to
her lips to catch the words in the noise of the
storm.
`Fear not, Henri, God has not given me
courage and strength to save you to permit
either you or I to perish now. We shall both
be saved. But my poor father!'
`The life-boat is not aboard! He probably
left the ship before the chances of safety were
quite gone. Be not apprehensive for him—
for a life-boat will live even in so terrific a
sea as this.'
`I have no hopes,' she answered despondingly.
`He has perished. There were
many in the boat—and with him have perished
this day all who two hours since sailed
with us in hope and pride. How many gallant
men will lie in the deep sea to-night
whose voices and foot-tread were but now
heard on this deck.'
`All may be saved! Think only of your
own preservation now,' said the young officer.
`We seem to be the only persons left in this
mighty fabric which has become the sport of
the wild winds and waves. Let us secure our
self-possession and be prepared to take advantage
of whatevor opening for safety Providence
may point out.'
His words gave her fresh energy, and after
hiding her face a few moments longer to commend
herself and him she loved so well, to
God, she stood up beside him and calmly
surveyed with him the sublime spectacle of the
tempest through which they were driving as
if impelled by the wings of destruction.—
Above them, around them, before them, all
was one elemental chaos. By degrees the fire
from the bows ate its way aft and reached the
bulwarks about the gangway. This was a new
subject for alarm. Hitherto there had been
no rain amid the storm—for the violence of
the windy tempest drove the water in sheeted
rain horizontally through the upper regions of
air ere it could fall upon the sea. But now it
began to descend with great vehemence and
soon completely deluged the decks and extinguished
the flames which had again become
a source of painful anxiety. It drove
them for shelter to the helmsman's house, a
strongly built covered shed, and here they remained
calmly waiting the fearful issue. Night
was rapidly setting in and both expected it
would be their last on earth. Seeing her perfectly
comfortable in her narrow quarters,
from which was visible the whole ship and
sea before her, the young officer left her to
examine the compass and found that they were
driving N. E. by E.
`You say we were near Calais, dearest Madaline,'
he asked, `steering parallel with the
shore, when the ship took fire by the lightning?'
`Yes. I was in my state room at the time,
and hastened on deck. There was a large
chateau close to us, not half a mile distant,
and I could see the towers of Calais over the
land.'
`Then we must now be near the Hague and
driving into the North Sea—for on this course
we should otherwise have driven ashore long
since. If the ship's bottom is sound and we
safely weather the head land of Zuyder Zee
we may be, if the gale lasts, wrecked in three
or four days on the coast of Denmark.'
This calculation was cooly made and stated
with frankness to the companion of his danger,
by the young man. He had hardly communicated
it to her, however, before the rain
which had beat against their shelter behind,
came suddenly in their faces.
`The wind has chopped round,' he cried
`and we shall stand a chance of being wrecked-on
a coast at least nearer home.'
The ship herself now began to labor heavily
and shear as if struck by a head sea, and he
felt satisfied that the wind had shifted to the
opposite quarter, as it often does in an instant
in violent hurricanes. The sea which had
been raised by the former direction of the gale
now being beaten back and agitated by conflicting
and tossed the hull fearfully as it strove
to make head against it. The young officer
now saw by the compass that their course was
changed and that the unwieldly mass on which
they depended for safety was driving south
west. He saw this would bring them land in
the vicinity of Calais if they did not before.
He cheered the noble girl by his side with
assurance of safety, and after having brought
her from the cabins such refreshments as he
could find, they remained watching the storm
which had increased in violence from its new
quarter, and trying, which poor human nature
finds it hard to do in danger, to put their trust
in Providence for a safe deliverance from the
imminent peril of their situation.
From the window of the chateau the Marquis
de Fernay and his niece, and from his
saddle upon the height upon which he had
halted, Louis, had seen the progress of the
storm. The former as we have seen beheld
the frigate driven out of sight into the gloomy
shades of the tempest, and turned all their
thrillingly wrought attention to the fate of the
line-of-battle-ship. The Marquis with a glass
beheld the two last boats lowered into the water
and the group of officers about her. He
had also informed Josephine that a female in
white leaned upon the arm of the commanding
officer, whose rank he recognised by his
uniform.
`Ah, there is some commotion,' he said
earnestly; `I see one boat is filled with men
and putting off while the other delays and
there is a rushing to and fro.'
`Do you see the lady still?' inquired his
niece.
`No. She is no longer visible. The commander
is also disappeared. How madly they
delay. The flames are approaching them on
one side and the tempest is almost upon them
upon the other. Yet they linger. Oh, that
they would escape! Now I see the commander
again. Two of his officers and his men are
forcing him into the boat—'
`And the lady, uncle?' asked the young
Countess breathlessly seizing his hand.
`She is no where to be seen. They have
forced their officer down into the boat and
have left the ship. The poor lady, I fear me,
has somehow perished. 'Tis a fearful scene.
The boat has left her, and now all the crew,
full five hundred men, are upon the water
striving for life in open boats. God be their
preserver! Hark, that fearful thunder crash!
How dread that roar of the wind! See the
sea lift its angry mane and lash itself into
foam! Look! the boats! how they are tossed
and the waves leap over them? Hark to the
shrieks!' cried the Countess sinking upon her
knees, `Oh, God! what a moment of agony!
There has one boat filled with living men
gone down! Another has disappeared! See!
a cannon ball from the ship itself has sunk a
third! But four survive! There disappears
another! Merciful heaven! spare thy creatures!'
`Let us fly niece! This is too dreadful!
Let us fly to the chapel and pray for them,
and afterwards when the storm will permit,
hasten with aid to the shore. Alas! see the
sea is sheeted with foam and in the warfare of
the elements none are longer visible, yet, I
trust all will not perish in such fearful misery!'
With these words the Marquis dragged his
niece from the window to which they had
both till now lingered with that fascination
which irresistibly and unaccountably binds
the senses to the contemplation of scenes of
suffering and horror from which the heart
shrinks and under which reason totters.
| CHAPTER II. Black Ralph, or, The helmsman of Hurlgate | |