He vented
his fury upon things inanimate. He tore his hair, and beat his breast,
with tumultuous agony. He imprecated with a hoarse and furious voice a
thousand curses upon those attendants who had permitted his captive to
escape. Through the spacious hall, where every thing a moment before had
worn the face of laboured gaiety and studied smiles, all was now
desolation, and disquiet, and uproar. And urged as the magician had been
by successive provocations, he was ready to overstep every limit he
might once have respected, and to proceed to the most fatal extremities.
In this situation, and as Roderic was hastening with a determined
resolution to follow to the apartment of Imogen, information was
suddenly brought to him, that a young stranger, tall and graceful in his
form, and of a frank and noble countenance, had by some unknown means
penetrated beyond the precipices with which the enchanted castle was
surrounded, and in spite of the resistance of the retinue of the
magician had entered the mansion. The dark and guilty heart of Roderic
immediately whispered him--"It is Edwin.--It is well.--I thank the Gods
that they do not hold this aspiring soul in a long and dreary suspence!
Let the destinies overtake me. I am prepared to receive them.
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