Page:The Enchanted Knights; or The Chronicle of the Three Sisters.djvu/72

60 face with a veil, and gave free vent to my tears. My melancholy seemed to move him; he begged and prayed, loudly lamented, and crouched at my feet. At last, his patience was tired, he sprung quickly up, and said:—‘Be it so, in seven years I shall see thee again.’ Upon this, he lifted the alabaster tablet upon the pedestal, and an irresistible sleep fell upon my eyelids, till the cruel man again broke my repose. ‘Unfeeling woman!’ spoke he, ‘if thou continuest cruel towards me, at least be not so towards thy three brothers. My treacherous equerry has discovered thy fate to them, but the traitor is punished. The unfortunate victims came at the head of an army to deliver thee from my hands, but this arm was too powerful for them, and they expiate their indiscretion under several forms in this forest.’ So miserable a falsehood, by which the villain attempted to triumph over my resistance, only served to inflame my hatred the more strongly against him; disdain curled my lips, scorn sparkled within my eye. ‘Wretch!’ screamed the raving pagan, ‘thy fate is decided! sleep as long as the invisible powers obey this talisman!’ At once he replaced the alabaster tablet, and the magic giddiness deprived me of life and sensation. You, my gallant knight, have, by annihilating the spell, brought me back to life; but I