CHAPTER XXVIII.
'Twas a dark tale of crime, and awed and chilled
E'en indignation seeming horror still'd,
Men stood beside a murd'rer's couch of death,
Watching-the glazing-eye and flickering-breath--
Speaking with look and hurried sign alone,
Their thoughts, too terror-fraught for word or tone.--MS.
The indignation excited in the Queen's mind against Don Louis was
destined, very speedily, to be increased. Ferdinand had had time to
become half angry, and quite impatient, ere his messengers dispatched
to the village returned. Stanley had been released--was regarded by
all as innocent; but this was literally only from a peasant's word and
the half broken intelligence of an exhausted boy: he wanted proof,
and a vague dread would take possession of him that his fate was but
temporarily suspended. At an early hour the next day, however, Don
Alonzo returned; and Ferdinand's impatient anger was averted, when he
found the delay had been occasioned by their determination, to
convey the dying man to Segovia, and the caution necessary for its
accomplishment. The Hermanos had already noted down his confession;
but it was so fraught with extended and dangerous consequences, that
they felt, they dared not act on their responsibility: all suppressing
measures must proceed from the sovereigns themselves.
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