The Midnight Queen - Page 154/177

"How very like royalty!" observed Hubert, in parenthesis. "If she were a

real queen, she could not act more naturally."

Sir Norman smiled, and the count glanced at the audacious page,

suspiciously; but Hubert's face was touching to witness, in its innocent

unconsciousness. Miranda, looking up at the same time, caught the young

knight's eye, and made a motion for him to approach. She held out

both her hands to him as he came near, with the same look of dreadful

delight.

"Sir Norman Kingsley, I am dying, and my last words are in thanksgiving

to you for having thus avenged me!"

"Let me hope you have many days to live yet, fair lady," said Sir

Norman, with the same feeling of repulsion he had experienced in the

dungeon. "I am sorry you have been obliged to witness this terrible

scene."

"Sorry!" she cried, fiercely. "Why, since the first hour I remember at

all, I remember nothing that has given me such joy as what has passed

now; my only regret is that I did not see them all die before my eyes!

Sorry! I tell you I would not have missed it for ten thousand worlds!"

"Madame, you must not talk like this!" said Sir Norman, almost sternly.

"Heaven forbid there should exist a woman who could rejoice in bloodshed

and death. You do not, I know. You wrong yourself and your own nature in

saying so. Be calm, now; do not excite yourself. You shall come with us,

and be properly cared for; and I feel certain you have a long and happy

life before you yet."

"Who are those men?" she said, not heeding him, "and who--ah, great

Heaven! What is that?"

In looking round, she had met Hubert face to face. She knew that that

face was her own; and, with a horror stamped on every feature that no

words can depict, she fell back, with a terrible scream and was dead!

Sir Norman was so shocked by the suddenness of the last catastrophe,

that, for some time, he could not realize that she had actually expired,

until he bent over her, and placed his ear to her lips. No breath was

there; no pulse stirred in that fierce heart--the Midnight Queen was

indeed dead!

"Oh, this is fearful!" exclaimed Sir Norman, pale and horrified.

"The sight of Hubert, and his wonderful resemblance to her, has

completed what her wound and this excitement began. Her last is breathed

on earth!"

"Peace be with her!" said the count, removing his hat, which, up to

the present, he had worn. "And now, Sir Norman, if we are to keep our

engagement at sunrise, we had better be on the move; for, unless I am

greatly mistaken, the sky is already grey with day-dawn."