The Turks alone showed apathy; though
all showed submission. These subjects of destiny looked on coldly,
though even among them a low rumor had passed that a malign influence
prevailed in the fleet; and that a great and proud spirit had got to be
mastered by the passion that so often deprives heroes of their
self-command and independence.
Ghita ceased her prayers, as the report of the gun broke rudely on her
ears, and with streaming eyes she even dared to look toward the frigate.
Raoul and all the rest bent their gaze in the same direction. The
sailors, among them, saw the rope at the fore-yard-arm move, and then
heads rose slowly above the hammock-cloths; when the prisoner and his
attendant priest were visible even to their feet. The unfortunate
Caraccioli, as has been said, had nearly numbered his threescore and ten
years, in the regular course of nature; and his bare head now showed the
traces of time. He wore no coat; and his arms were bound behind his
back, at the elbows, leaving just motion enough to the hands to aid him
in the slighter offices about his own person. His neck was bare, and the
fatal cord was tightened sufficiently around it to prevent accidents,
constantly admonishing its victim of its revolting office.
A low murmur arose among the people in the boats as this spectacle
presented itself to their eyes; and many bowed their faces in prayer.
The condemned man caught a ray of consolation from this expression of
sympathy; and he looked around him an instant, with something like a
return of those feelings of the world which it had been his effort and
his desire totally to eradicate since he had taken, leave of Ghita, and
learned that his last request--that of changing his mode of
punishment--had been denied.
Pages:
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311