Once I was myself a decorist: but
that sublimation of folly has palled upon my soul. All this is now the
fitter for my purpose. Like these arabesque censers, my spirit is
writhing in fire, and the delirium of this scene is fashioning me
for the wilder visions of that land of real dreams whither I am now
rapidly departing." He here paused abruptly, bent his head to his
bosom, and seemed to listen to a sound which I could not hear. At
length, erecting his frame, he looked upwards and ejaculated the lines
of the Bishop of Chichester: --
Stay for me there! I will not fail
To meet thee in that hollow vale.
In the next instant, confessing the power of the wine, he threw
himself at full length upon an ottoman.
A quick step was now heard upon the staircase, and a loud knock at
the door rapidly succeeded. I was hastening to anticipate a second
disturbance, when a page of Mentoni's household burst into the room,
and faltered out, in a voice choking with emotion, the incoherent
words, "My mistress! --my mistress! --poisoned! --poisoned! Oh
beautiful --oh beautiful Aphrodite!"
Bewildered, I flew to the ottoman, and endeavored to arouse the
sleeper to a sense of the startling intelligence.
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