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In her case there was a tranquillity of agony--a quiet, unresisting
submission--a gentle bowing of the neck to the stake, at the sacrifice
that resulted from the clear perception of her great mind, which
thus, by its very facility of apprehension, magnified the torture she
suffered. Whilst descending the stairs, she felt such a sinking of the
soul within her, as the unhappy wretch does who ascends from those which
lead to that deadly platform from which is taken the terrible spring
into eternity.
On entering the room she saw herself in the large mirror that adorned
the mantel-piece, and felt for the first time as if all this was some
dreadful dream. The reality, however, of the misery she felt was too
strongly in her heart to suffer this consoling fiction, painful even
though it was, to remain. The next moment she found Lord Dunroe doing
her homage and obeisance,--an obeisance which she returned with a
lady-like but melancholy grace, that might have told to any other
observer the sufferings she felt, and the sacrifice she was making.


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