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they ceased, and the world grew dark before mine eyes, and I stood
aghast at the burning thoughts which possessed, at the terrible
temptations which beset me; for there came from some far, far distant
and unknown land, into the gay court of the king I served, a maiden to
whose beauty my whole recreant heart yielded at once--at whose footstool
I bowed down without a struggle, in the most ardent, in the most abject
worship of love. What, indeed, was my passion for the young girl of
the valley in comparison with the fervor, and the delirium, and the
spirit-lifting ecstasy of adoration with which I poured out my whole
soul in tears at the feet of the ethereal Ermengarde?--Oh, bright
was the seraph Ermengarde! and in that knowledge I had room for none
other.--Oh, divine was the angel Ermengarde! and as I looked down into
the depths of her memorial eyes, I thought only of them--and of her.
I wedded;--nor dreaded the curse I had invoked; and its bitterness was
not visited upon me. And once--but once again in the silence of the
night; there came through my lattice the soft sighs which had forsaken
me; and they modelled themselves into familiar and sweet voice, saying:
"Sleep in peace!--for the Spirit of Love reigneth and ruleth, and, in
taking to thy passionate heart her who is Ermengarde, thou art absolved,
for reasons which shall be made known to thee in Heaven, of thy vows
unto Eleonora."
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