Happily the accomplishments he taught me have kept
me from utter want; and the love with which he inspired me has kept me
from farther degradation. Yes! I confess my weakness; all his perfidy
and wrongs cannot efface him from my heart. I have been brought up to
love him; I have no other idol: I know him to be base, yet I cannot
help adoring him. I am content to mingle among the hireling throng
that administer to his amusements, that I may still hover about him,
and linger in those halls where I once reigned mistress. What merit,
then, have I in assisting your escape? I scarce know whether I am
acting from sympathy and a desire to rescue another victim from his
power; or jealousy, and an eagerness to remove too powerful a rival!"
While she was yet speaking, the sun rose in all its splendour; first
lighting up the mountain summits, then stealing down height by height,
until its rays gilded the domes and towers of Granada, which they
could partially see from between the trees, below them. Just then the
heavy tones of a bell came sounding from a distance, echoing, in
sullen clang, along the mountain. Inez turned pale at the sound. She
knew it to be the great bell of the cathedral, rung at sunrise on the
day of the auto da fe, to give note of funeral preparation.
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