A shudder ran through the whole body of the
hall. Plainly the impression was that she had been FETCHED. The
thunder and the smoke had not been for nothing: the devil had
claimed and carried off his own! On the dais the impression was
somewhat different; but all were one in this, that every eye was
fixed on lord Herbert, every thought hanging on his pleasure.
For a whole minute he stood, apparently lost in meditation. The bat
still rested on his hand, but his wings were still.
He had intended causing it to settle on Amanda's head, but now he
must alter his plan. Nor was he sorry to do so, for it had involved
no small risk of failure, the toy requiring most delicate
adjustment, and its management a circumspection and nicety that
occasioned him no little anxiety. It had indeed been arranged that
Amanda should sit right under the window next the dais, so that he
might have the assistance of Caspar from above; but if by any chance
the mechanical bat should alight upon the head of another, mistress
Doughty or lady Broughton instead of Amanda--what then? He was not
sorry to find himself rescued from this jeopardy, and scarcely more
than a minute had elapsed ere he had devised a plan by which to turn
the check to the advantage of all--even that of Amanda herself,
towards whom, while he felt bound to bring her to shame should she
prove guilty, he was yet willing to remember mercy; while, should
she be innocent, no harm would now result from his mistaken
suspicion.
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