DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5828#0153
124
THE ROYAL DEVOTEE,
■which he had been so unceremoniously subjected,
only rendered him the more petulant and intemperate.
He was, however, so much awed by the apparent
visitation of Mariataly from the dead, that it tended
somewhat to subdue his asperity, which was now
often overborne by his terrors. He had made the
minutest inquiries concerning that maiden's burial,
and received such circumstantial details of the
whole process, separately examining all who were
present, that he could no longer entertain any
doubt of the fact of her having been committed to
the earth with the corpse of her lover. He was from
this time a prey to the most tormenting superstition,
which aggravated the infirmities of his temperament,
and rendered him positively odious. The queen
shunned his presence, except upon those occasions
when she was obliged to endure it for the sake of
keeping up the forms of state ceremony. Being
haunted by the perpetual presence of her whom he
had doomed to such an unjust and cruel death, the
life of Youghal was becoming one protracted interval
of torture, which he knew not how to support. He
more than once thought of hanging himself with a
golden cord, but had not resolution to die ; he feared
to meet the spirits of the wronged Veramarken and
still more injured Mariataly. Although perceiving
himself to be universally hated, he was so constantly
a prey to irritation, that he could not now bend his
fierce temper to conciliate the good opinion of any-
one. Passing one day into his garden, attended by a
couple of guards, his turban was struck from his head
by an arrow, the barb of which was found lodged in
THE ROYAL DEVOTEE,
■which he had been so unceremoniously subjected,
only rendered him the more petulant and intemperate.
He was, however, so much awed by the apparent
visitation of Mariataly from the dead, that it tended
somewhat to subdue his asperity, which was now
often overborne by his terrors. He had made the
minutest inquiries concerning that maiden's burial,
and received such circumstantial details of the
whole process, separately examining all who were
present, that he could no longer entertain any
doubt of the fact of her having been committed to
the earth with the corpse of her lover. He was from
this time a prey to the most tormenting superstition,
which aggravated the infirmities of his temperament,
and rendered him positively odious. The queen
shunned his presence, except upon those occasions
when she was obliged to endure it for the sake of
keeping up the forms of state ceremony. Being
haunted by the perpetual presence of her whom he
had doomed to such an unjust and cruel death, the
life of Youghal was becoming one protracted interval
of torture, which he knew not how to support. He
more than once thought of hanging himself with a
golden cord, but had not resolution to die ; he feared
to meet the spirits of the wronged Veramarken and
still more injured Mariataly. Although perceiving
himself to be universally hated, he was so constantly
a prey to irritation, that he could not now bend his
fierce temper to conciliate the good opinion of any-
one. Passing one day into his garden, attended by a
couple of guards, his turban was struck from his head
by an arrow, the barb of which was found lodged in