Sentence:  "Upon a sign, she takes ahold of two cords of black silk, to which were attached loops, through which she passes her arms, and in the twinkling of an eye is translated by two pulleys from her bed through the ceiling into the room above, and the trap closing as it has opened, left the old duenna in a state of great <WSD>flabbergastation</WSD>, when, turning her head, she neither saw robe nor woman, and perceived that the women had been robbed." 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Bewildered shock or surprise; the state or condition of being flabbergasted.<ref>cite-book