named as bearing the stamp of queen of nations on her noble brow, now rose

superior to humanity, and seemed in calm power, to arrest with her finger,

the wheel of destiny. She had never before looked so supremely lovely.

We, the Arcadian shepherds of the tale, had intended to be present at this

festivity, but Perdita wrote to entreat us not to come, or to absent

ourselves from Windsor; for she (though she did not reveal her scheme to

us) resolved the next morning to return with Raymond to our dear circle,

there to renew a course of life in which she had found entire felicity.

Late in the evening she entered the apartments appropriated to the

festival. Raymond had quitted the palace the night before; he had promised

to grace the assembly, but he had not yet returned. Still she felt sure

that he would come at last; and the wider the breach might appear at this

crisis, the more secure she was of closing it for ever.

It was as I said, the nineteenth of October; the autumn was far advanced

and dreary. The wind howled; the half bare trees were despoiled of the

remainder of their summer ornament; the state of the air which induced the

decay of vegetation, was hostile to cheerfulness or hope. Raymond had been

exalted by the determination he had made; but with the declining day his

spirits declined. First he was to visit Evadne, and then to hasten to the

palace of the Protectorate. As he walked through the wretched streets in

the neighbourhood of the luckless Greek's abode, his heart smote him for

the whole course of his conduct towards her. First, his having entered into

any engagement that should permit her to remain in such a state of

degradation; and then, after a short wild dream, having left her to drear

172

The Last Man