"Oh! my friend, my more than mother, (exclaimed Madeline, pressing her cold cheek to the yet colder one of the Countess) no murderous ruffian is now near you."
The Countess sighed heavily, and opening her dim eyes, looked round her some minutes before she spoke, as if doubting the reality of what she saw; then in a faint voice, but one that evidently denoted pleasure, she cried, "Great and glorious Being, I thank thee—I shall not die far from those I love, beneath the cruel hand of an assassin."
"Dearly shall he, who raised that hand against you, rue his crime! (exclaimed Agatha); I know the villain—I discovered his accursed confidant near the chapel, and I will bring him to punishment, though my own life should be forfeited by doing so."
"Mistaken woman, (said the Countess in a hollow voice) how would you avenge me? is it by exposing to infamy and death those more precious to me than life—by giving to my heart a deeper wound than my body has sustained?
