Fiction > Book editions > London, 1888 - Prince Otto

A ROMANCE 233
' Sabra ! The grand-mason ? ' returned the
Chancellor, aghast. 'If he but saw this, he
would sound the tocsin — we should all be but-
chered.'
She measured the depth of her abasement
steadily. ' Take whom you must,' she said, ' and
bring the litter here.'
Once she was alone she ran to the Baron,
and with a sickening heart sought to allay the
flux of blood. The touch of the skin of that
great charlatan revolted her to the toes ; the
wound, in her ignorant eyes, looked deathly ;
yet she contended with her shuddering, and,
with more skill at least than the Chancellor's,
staunched the welling injury. An eye unpre-
judiced with hate would have admired the Baron
in his swoon ; he looked so great and shapely ;
it was so powerful a machine that lay arrested ;
and his features, cleared for the moment both
of temper and dissimulation, were seen to be
so purely modelled. But it was not thus with
Seraphina. Her victim, as he lay outspread,
twitching a little, his big chest unbared, fixed
her with his ugliness ; and her mind flitted for a
glimpse to Otto.
Eumours began to sound about the Palace
of feet running and of voices raised ; the echoes
of the great arched staircase were voluble of
some confusion ; and then the gallery jarred