Excitement and agitation had
flushed his pale cheeks a little, his eyes were luminous and full of
fire, a sweet smile hovered on his rich, red lips, and he had never
looked more splendidly, irresistibly handsome in his life. At last
Isabelle moved, raised her eyelids, turned her head, and perceived the
Duke of Vallombreuse, kneeling within six feet of her. If Perseus had
suddenly appeared before her, holding up Medusa's horrid head, the
effect would have been much the same. She sat like a statue, motionless,
breathless, as if she had been petrified, or frozen stiff--her eyes,
dilated with excessive terror, fixed upon his face, her lips parted, her
throat parched and dry, her tongue paralyzed--unable to move or speak.
A ghastly pallor overspread her horror-stricken countenance, a deathly
chill seized upon all her being, and for one dreadful moment of supreme
anguish she feared that she was going to faint quite away; but, by a
desperate, prodigious effort of will, she recalled her failing senses,
that she might not leave herself entirely defenceless in the power of
her cruel persecutor.
"Can it be possible that I inspire such overwhelming horror in your
gentle breast, my sweet Isabelle," said Vallombreuse in his most dulcet
tones, and without stirring from his position, "that the mere sight of
me produces an effect like this? Why, a wild beast, crouching to spring
upon you from his lair, with angry roar and blazing eyeballs, could not
terrify you more.
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