CHAPTER XXXII.
"She clasped her hands"!--the strife
Of love--faith--fear, and the vain dream of life,
Within her woman-heart so deeply wrought--
It seemed as if a reed, so slight and weak,
_Must_, in the rending storm, not quiver only--break!
MRS. HEMANS.
Isabella's expressive countenance was grave and calm; but it was
impossible to doubt the firmness of her purpose, though what that
purpose might be, Marie had no power to read. She stood leaning
against the back of one of the ponderous chairs; her head bent down,
and her heart so loudly and thickly throbbing that it choked her very
breath.
"We have summoned thee hither, Marie," the Queen said at length,
gravely, but not severely, "to hear from thine own lips the decision
which Father Denis has reported to us; but which, indeed, we can
scarcely credit. Wert thou other than thou art--one whose heavy trials
and lovable qualities have bound thee to us with more than common
love--we should have delivered thee over at once to the judgment of
our holy fathers, and interfered with their sentence no farther. We
are exposing ourselves to priestly censure even for the forbearance
already shown; but we will dare even that, to win thee from thine
accursed creed, and give thee peace and comfort.
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