The staircase was opposite the door. Two persons were now
discovered descending the stair. They lifted between them a heavy mass,
which was presently discerned to be a coffin. Shocked by this discovery,
and trembling, she withdrew from the entrance.
* * * * *
=_Washington Allston, 1779-1843._= (Manual, pp. 504, 510.)
From "Monaldi."
=_277._= IMPERSONATION OF THE POWER OF EVIL.
The light (which descended from above) was so powerful, that for nearly
a minute I could distinguish nothing, and I rested on a form attached
to the wainscoting. I then put up my hand to shade my eyes, when--the
fearful vision is even now before me--I seemed to be standing before
an abyss in space, boundless and black. In the midst of this permeable
pitch stood a colossal mass of gold, in shape like an altar, and girdled
about by a huge serpent, gorgeous and terrible; his body flecked with
diamonds, and his head, an enormous carbuncle, floating like a meteor
on the air above. Such was the Throne. But no words can describe
the gigantic Being that sat thereon--the grace, the majesty, its
transcendent form--and yet I shuddered as I looked, for its superhuman
countenance seemed, as it were, to radiate falsehood; every feature was
in contradiction--the eye, the mouth, even to the nostril--whilst the
expression of the whole was of that unnatural softness which can only be
conceived of malignant blandishment.
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