ce, his daughter uttered a faint exclamation of
delight. "My poor Inez!" said he, embracing her; then, putting his
hand to his head, and taking it away stained with blood, he seemed
suddenly to recollect himself, and to be overcome with emotion.
"Ah!" cried he, "all is over with me! all gone! all vanished! gone in
a moment! the labour of a lifetime lost!"
His daughter attempted to soothe him, but he became slightly
delirious, and raved incoherently about malignant demons, and about
the habitation of the green lion being destroyed. His wounds being
dressed, and such other remedies administered as his situation
required, he sunk into a state of quiet. Antonio now turned his
attention to the daughter, whose sufferings had been little inferior
to those of her father. Having with great difficulty succeeded in
tranquillizing her fears, he endeavoured to prevail upon her to
retire, and seek the repose so necessary to her frame, proffering to
remain by her father until morning. "I am a stranger," said he, "it is
true, and my offer may appear intrusive; but I see you are lonely and
helpless, and I cannot help venturing over the limits of mere
ceremony. Should you feel any scruple or doubt, however, say but a
word, and I will instantly retire."
There was a frankness, a kindness, and a modesty, mingled in Antonio's
deportment, that inspired instant confidence; and his simple scholar's
garb was a recommendation in the house of poverty. The females
consented to resign the sufferer to his care, as they would be the
better able to attend to him on the morrow. On retiring, the old
domestic was profuse in her benedictions; the daughter only looked her
thanks; but as they shone through the tears that filled her fine black
eyes, the student thought them a thousand times the most eloquent.
Here, then, he was, by a singular turn of chance, completely housed
within this mysterious mansion. When left to himself, and the bustle
of the scene was over, his heart throbbed as he looked round the
chamber in which he was sitting. It was the daughter's room, the
promised land toward which he had cast so many a longing gaze. The
furniture was old, and had probably belonged to the building in its
prosperous days; but every thing was arranged with propriety. The
flowers that he had seen her attend stood in the window; a guitar
leaned against a table, on which stood a crucifix, and before it lay a
missal and a rosary. There reigned an air of puri
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