While all this was going
on, the tyrant was making his way up the grand staircase, as fast as
his corpulence would permit, and reached the top just in time to see
Isabelle, pale, dishevelled, motionless, and apparently dead, being
borne along the corridor by two lackeys. Without stopping to make any
inquiries, and full of wrath at the thought that the sweet girl had
fallen a victim to the wickedness of the cruel Duke of Vallombreuse,
he drew his sword, and fell upon the two men with such fury that they
dropped their light burden and fled down the stairs as fast as their
legs could carry them. Then he knelt down beside the unconscious girl,
raised her gently in his arms, and found that her heart was beating,
though but feebly, and that she apparently had no wound, while she
sighed faintly, like a person beginning to revive after a swoon. In this
position he was found by de Sigognac, who had effectually gotten rid
of Vallombreuse, by the famous and well-directed thrust that had thrown
Jacquemin Lampourde into a rapture of admiration and delight. He knelt
down beside his darling, took both her hands in his, and said, in the
most tender tones, that Isabelle heard vaguely as if in a dream:
"Rouse yourself, dear heart, and fear nothing.
Pages:
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537