"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."