little--I had grown
familiar with its unsightly things, its crawling spiders, its strange
uncouth beetles, the clusters of blue fungi on its damp walls. The
scurrying noises made by bats and owls, who, scared by the lighted
candles, were hiding themselves in holes and corners of refuge,
startled me not at all--I was well accustomed to such sounds. In my
then state of mind, an emperor's palace were less fair to me than this
brave charnel house--this stone-mouthed witness of my struggle back to
life and all life's misery. The deep-toned bell outside the cemetery
struck ONE! We had been absent nearly two hours from the brilliant
assemblage left at the hotel. No doubt we were being searched for
everywhere--it mattered not! they would not come to seek us HERE. I
went on resolutely toward the stair--as I placed my foot on the firm
step of the ascent, my wife stirred from her recumbent position--her
swoon had passed. She did not perceive me where I stood, ready to
depart--she murmured something to herself in a low voice, and taking in
her hand the falling tresses of her own hair she seemed to admire its
color and texture, for she stroked it and restroked it and finally
broke into a gay laugh--a laugh so out of all keeping with her
surroundings, that it startled me more than her attempt to murder me.
She presently stood up with all her own lily-like grace and fairy
majesty; and smiling as though she were a pleased child, she began to
arrange her disordered dress with elaborate care. I paused wonderingly
and watched her. She went to the brigand's chest of treasure and
proceeded to examine its contents--laces, silver and gold embroideries,
antique ornaments, she took carefully in her hands, seeming mentally to
calculate their cost and value. Jewels that were set as necklaces,
bracelets and other trinkets of feminine wear she put on, one after the
other, till her neck and arms were loaded--and literally blazed with
the myriad scintillations of different-colored gems. I marveled at her
strange conduct, but did not as yet guess its meaning. I moved away
from the staircase and drew imperceptibly nearer to her--Hark! what was
that? A strange, low rumbling like a distant earthquake, followed by a
sharp cracking sound; I stopped to listen attentively. A furious gust
of wind rushed round the mausoleum shrieking wildly like some devil in
anger, and the strong draught flying through the gateway extinguished
two of the flaring candles. My
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