More we know not, for we asked not the site of
her home."
There was a few minutes' pause, and then, with beseeching eloquence,
Arthur conjured the Sovereign to let him see her once, but once again.
He asked no more, but he felt as if he could not sustain the agony of
eternal separation, without one last, last interview. He pledged his
honor, that no temptation of a secret union should interfere with the
sentence of the Queen; that both would submit; only to permit them
once more to meet again.
Isabella hesitated, but not for long. Perhaps the secret hope arose
that Stanley's presence would effect that for which all else had
failed; or that she really could not resist his passionate pleadings.
"One word of retraction, and even now she is thine.--And I will bless
thee that thou gavest her to me again," she said in parting; but her
own spirit told her the hope was vain.
Half an hour after this agitating interview Arthur Stanley was again
on horseback, a deep hectic on either cheek; his eye bloodshot and
strained, traversing with the speed of lightning the open country, in
the direction of Castile.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
"Oh! love, love, strong as death--from such an hour
Pressing out joy by thine immortal power;
Holy and fervent love! Had earth but rest
For thee and thine, this world were all too fair:
How could we thence be weaned to die without despair!
"But woe for him who felt that heart grow still
Which with its weight of agony had lain
Breaking on his.
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