Thou
must learn, loveliest of thy sex, to dread the poison of flattery. It is
more venemous than the adder, it is more destructive than hebenon or
madragora. It annihilates every respectable quality in the very act of
extolling it; it undermines all that adorns and elevates the human
character. Even now that thou listenest to it, and drinkest in, without
apprehension, its opiate sounds, thou art too near to the sacrifice of
those very excellencies it pretends to admire. For the head of Imogen
was made giddy by the applauses she heard; drunk with admiration, she
was no longer conscious of the things around her, or of herself; she
sunk vanquished and supine, and was supported by one of the attendants.
At this moment Roderic came forth from an adjoining apartment, and
caught in his arms the vanquished beauty. In the mean time the
attendants, the musicians, and the supernatural beings disappeared, and
she was left alone with her betrayer.
Roderic surveyed his victim with an eye of avidity and triumph. His
eager curiosity wandered over her hoard of charms; and his brutal
passion was soothed with the contemplation of her disorder. Already in
imagination, he had possessed himself of a decisive advantage over so
apparent a weakness; and his breast was steeled against the emotions of
pity.
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