The King himself was grave almost to melancholy, though
more than once he endeavored to shake it off, and speak as usual. Men
found themselves whispering to each other as if they feared to speak
aloud--as if some impalpable and invisible horror were hovering round
them. It might have been that the raging storm without affected all
within, with a species of awe, to which even the wisest and the
bravest are liable when the Almighty utters His voice in the tempest,
and the utter nothingness of men comes home to the proudest heart.
But there was another cause. One was missing from the council and the
board; the seat of Don Ferdinand Morales was vacant, and unuttered but
absorbing anxiety occupied every mind. It was full two hours, rather
more, from the given hour of meeting; the council itself had been
delayed, and was at length held without him, but so unsatisfactory did
it prove, that many subjects were postponed. They adjourned to the
banquet-room; but the wine circled but slowly, and the King leant back
on his chair, disinclined apparently for either food or drink.
"The storm increases fearfully," observed the aged Duke of Murcia,
a kinsman of the King, as a flash of lightning blazed through the
casements, of such extraordinary length and brilliance, that even the
numerous lustres, with which the room was lighted, looked dark when
it disappeared.
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