The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1866-06-16
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Assuredly my Lord does not doubt
me when say, yes? Yes, shall meet
your Majesty. See the jewellers from
the hall seek you as one lost. Join them,
and remember the appointed hour"
Francis retired abashcd, when with
gentle force he had been expelled from
the oratory; and Ellen quietly resumed
her devotions for the night.
TRANQUILITY she arose, and her manner
betrayed neither excitement nor emo
ton, though from repeated efforts she
made to trim the chamber lamp, and
furtive glances she cast often Mt mir
ror, dull must one be who could not dis
tinguish that she was i'll mt ease. She
paced round the apartment, which was
small and meanly furnished, its only
ornament being few pictures in en-
broidery on Scripture subjects. In one
corner were suspended loose sheets of
vellun, parts of a missal for festival pur-
poses, and in another seemed a perch to
have been erected, upon which perched
hawk, but so in the shade that it was
difficult to determine whether it was
part of the ravelled tapestry or q real
bird.
At length she sat on low stool and
encompassed her knees between her
hands, rocking to and fro as If engaged
in unravelling some painful train of
reflections. "If inward beauty can be
nowise retained except by outward in
jury, better the body know scath than
that the soul be detiled," said she, re-
viewing herself in the grotesque mirror
with a pensive expression which soon
cleared into cheerfulness. Now, vani-
ty aside," continued she," Nell, did you
ever think you were so pretty as to
make conquest of king? Never, Nell,
never! Nell must be lovely to have ac-
complished that. La, what toyshop of
charms are temptingly piled in yonder
glass;' and she shook the oil so that
: wavy light fell on the mirror. "Blue
eyes and black hair are peculiarities not
often found together. Yet here / have
them in Milesian perfection, albeit the
average spirit of my eyes is half merri-
ment, half melancholy. And cheeks
, are here, though they may not shame
the rose, they never knew the blush of
, counterfeit. Teeth, likewise, which,
though passing white, any elephant
hunter would at one glance discover
were no ivory; and lips which truer
wooer than my Lord Francis told Ellen
2 were gushing ripe, any wild bird would
| know mt first pecking were not worth
| sweet Strawberries. Well, and as l was
thinking, it's pity all this toyshop
; should be in an hour or two as sad to
: look on as Il sepulchre."
= She called her maid, and babe hei
| bring a chafing-dish, which done the
D maid retired, and Ellen sat once more
g alone. Suspending the basin ofa spirit.
: lamp over the dish, she dropped in the
sulphur, and as it fused into liquid, q
} yellow flame tickered up, and cast dull
halo around the chamber. She shook
out her hair from the golden pins that
bound it, and it fell luXuriantly to the
: floor, before she combed it with the
greatest care, as if she intended to re-
, brush it again. Redressing, her tresses
never had more; for with scissors she
clipped round and round till her head
was negress bare, but not half so pic
/ turesque, for it had no curls!
, Smearing her forehead and checks
with oil, the sulphuric vapOr arose in
poisonous influence as she leaned over
the fatal dish. Her eyelashes were the
first sacrifices to the fume ; and her pain
ed eyeballs rolled in their sockets us if
they were driven inward by gusts of
fire. The fairness of her forehead at first
became dark olive hue, and assuming
a charred blackness, the skin burst over
the quvering veins. Her cheeks soon
were bereaved of all blush and beauty,
and her lips, if they had any similitude
of fruit, partook less of the rowan than
the sloe. She endeavored to allay the
pain by averting her head from the va
por; but the evasion only increased her
agony, for her neck, upon which drops
of the sulphur crystallized, became
acutely sensitive to the weight of a
string of pearls. One by one she remov-
ed them from the smarting flesh; but
the clasp behind had sunk so deep that
its withdrawal gave her torture intense
ly severe.
With inconceivable effort she preserved
herself from insensibility, and with CO.
piOus draughts of water allayed the
burning fever in her throat. Her voice
lost its sweetness, and she expressed her
grief in such harshness and monotony
that she started from her seat as the
clock struck twelve. AS peal after peal
swept dismally along she tottered to the
door, which she opened, and cropping
her way along the walls, for her eyes
were dim, searched for hood and bells,
which she shook. The perch in the
corner rocked backward and forward,
as the hawk on it tapped its wings and
screamed so loudly at the sounds of its
favOrite emblems Of chase that the
chamber rang.
| The King, who had been walking in