28 THE DANCE OF DEATH.
' I have never tried ; but my eye has taught me something . '
" What could I say ? and , in truth , I confess I could not see why , merely for fear of my absent friend , I should make myself ridiculous ; nay , I could not but feel a sensation of pride in the triumph which 1 anticipated for my bride . The Countess and I were the second couple ; some of the more honoured guests made up the third and fourth , and the dance began .
" After a few turns , however , the music , at the suggestion of the young Count , changed to a lively waltz ; and the dancers began to revolve in giddier circles . I felt as if lightning - struck ; my feet seemed glued to the ground ; the young Countess vainly endeavoured to draw me along with her ; my eyes alone retained life and motion , and followed the footsteps of Amanda , who , light as a sylph , but blooming beyond aught that I had ever seen , was flitting round in the arms of the Count .
" At once the door opened , and I saw Ema- nuel enter in full dress , but he was arrested on the threshold ; his eyes were rooted on Amanda . Suddenly he smote his hands together above his head , and sank at the same moment to the ground with a cry that rang through the hall .
" This accident seemed to disenchant me . My feet were loosened . I and others flew to- wards him like lightning , raised him , and carried him through the hall , into an adjoining room , which served as a passage to the hall . All this was the work of a moment . Amanda , however , had observed the confusion , had heard the name of her brother ; that loud and piercing cry had echoed through her heart . As if transported out of herself , she tore herself out of the supporting arms of the Count , flew across the court into the chamber beyond , and sunk , weeping , imploring , in the most lively agitation , at the feet of her brother .
" The strange appearance of Emanuel , his cry , his fainting , had created a confusion which , for a moment , I confess withdrew my attention from her . It was when her brother began to recover his senses , that I first observed her deadly paleness . Methought I saw again the dying Lucia in my gaily dressed bride , whose white robes and myrtle wreath reminded me of the ghastly bridegroom of her sisters , who thus seemed to step in between me and my happiness . She hung , cold , inanimate , tottering , upon my
arm .
" She was immediately carried to bed . She never rose from it again . Her sickness took even a more sudden and terrible character than usual , which , indeed , under the circumstances , might have been expected . Never , I may say , had my poor Amanda been in so great a state of excitement as during this , her first and last dance . The sudden shock she received , the coldness of the open room , and the still more open court , swept by a rude autumnal wind , at a moment when the general confusion prevented any mea- sures of precaution from being taken , had wrought terrible ravages in her tender frame ,
and would have been enough , even without a hereditary predisposition to the malady , to have produced the same fatal consequences . The disease seized on her with that fatal and rapid grasp from which it derives its name ; in a fort- night she was numbered with the dead .
" Her decline seemed for a moment to restore the physical strength of her unhappy brother . He burst out into the loudest reproaches against me , and every one who sought to withdraw him from the bedside of the invalid . It was wonder- ful how his weak frame bore up against it , but he scarcely ever left her side . She died in his arms ; he covered the dead body with kisses ; force alone could detach him from it . " But almost instantly after , a strange dull in- action seemed to come over his mind . He re- proached me no longer , as I had expected , but asked to know how all had happened , and in turn told me , with a bitter and heart - piercing smile , that he had been prevented from coming by a serious indisposition . I had caught , as the physicians thought , a cough arising from cold , but with the natural nervousness of my disposi- tion , I thought I discerned in it the seeds of the long - dreaded malady , and as the physician as- sured me that a few days would remove it , I resolved to stay away from the marriage , in order to give his prescriptions ( which were chiefly rest and quietness ) every fair chance ; and if the truth were as I suspected , not to disturb your happiness by any uneasiness on my account . But the day before the marriage I was seized with an inexpressible feeling of anxiety . I re- collected that your marriage would be celebrated in the same mansion , perhaps in the same cham- ber , where my mother , with her yet unborn off- spring had been devoted to death . I could not rest ; some unknown power seemed to impel me forward , as if to prevent some great , some inex- plicable evil . I was instantly on my way ; at the last station on the road , while waiting for my horses , 1 dressed , that I might lose no time . I came - not to prevent - but every thing was now too clearly explained . I had come to fulfil my destiny . '
" My friend remained completely resigned to his fate . The death of his sister had convinced him of the certainty of his own . With her life , his own relish for life had utterly departed . Already it seemed to lie behind him like a sha- dow ; he felt an impatient , irrepressible longing to be with those who had gone before .
" The physicians at first maintained that his malady - for he already felt its influence on his frame - was but imaginary . And as he submit- ted quietly to every thing , it cost me but little trouble to induce him to travel with me . I will not trouble you with my own feelings or suffer- ings : 1 urged him to go to the south of France , the climate of which was so generally reckoned beneficial . He smiled , but as if the dying flame of love of life had for a moment rekindled in his bosom , he expressed a wish rather to go to Italy . ' There , ' he said , ' he might have an opportunity of seeing and studying the works of the great
