Page:Storys (sic) of The wild huntsman.pdf/23

23 doubly attractive by the splendid alter-piece painted for it by Carl Von Monder; the Object of which was 'The Treachery of Judas' Beautiful, however, as the painting was, Juliana was to much agitated to look at it. She stood before the altar, but she thought only of the awful ceremony which was to unite her forever to the Count. The priest went through the usual forms, but just as Juliana gave her hand to her husband, a fearful scream ran through the whole building, and in an instant, Francis rushed between the new married pair, exclaiming, in a voice of thunder, 'I !'As he spoke, his eyes fell upon the picture; and to his indiscribable horror, he saw his own features dipicted for those of Judas, He shrieked in anguish. 'I—I am Judas!' screamed he, thrown of his guard by this unexpected incident,—'I betrayed my master—I seduced his wife, and then poisoned him to conceal my crime. Otto, Juliana is '

Who shall paint the agony of the moment? Francis had broken a blood vessel from the violence of his emotion, and as he finished speaking, the crimson torrent gushed from his lips. He never spoke again, but years of lengthened misery waited on the victims of his crime. Juliana entered a convent. and Otto sought to win glory by