Page:Tales of humour and romance translated by Holcroft.djvu/226

 He seized the astonished mother with a convulsive grasp, and stammered out, as his eye became blind, and while sinking to the ground: "Rosamond, where art thou—I fly—I die—let us go together!"

His, heart broke—his spirit fled—but Rosamond remained not with him, for fate tore her from his dying grasp, and threw her back alive upon the earth. She felt his hand, and when she found it deadly cold, she laid it softly upon her bosom, fell slowly upon her bended kness, raised up her face, cheered beyond expression; towards the starry night turned her large and happy eyes, dry from their tearless sockets, up into heaven, and looked calmly around for some celestial form who would descend and bear her up. She firmly believed that she would immediately die, and in an imploring voice said: "Come now, angel of rest, come take my heart and carry it to my beloved—angel of rest, leave me not so long with the dead. Is there nothing invisible around me?—Angel of death, thou must be near me, for thou hast even now torn from my embrace, two darling souls, and allowed them to ascend—I am dead too—draw my burning soul from its cold kneeling corpse!"

She looked with a frantic restlessness around the empty sky. At that moment a star burned in its quiet wilderness, and took its arrowy course to the earth.