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When I expressed this wish to Isora, she looked at me long and wistfully, and then burst into tears. "/You/ will not deceive us," said she, "and I accept your kindness at once, from /him/ I rejected the same offer." "Him? of whom speak you? this Barnard, or rather but I know him!" A startling expression passed over Isora's speaking face.
I saw by the countenance of the servant who admitted me that all was well: so I asked no question; I flew up the stairs; I broke into Isora's chamber, and in an instant she was in my arms.
Pride not only strengthened my passions, it also persuaded them by its voice; and it was not till the languid yet deep stillness of sated wishes and palled desires fell upon me, that the low accent of a love still surviving at my heart made itself heard in answer. I now began to take a different view of Isora's conduct.
I tore myself from Isora's clasp I stretched my hand to the table by my bedside, upon which I had left my sword, it was gone! No matter! I was young, strong, fierce, and the stake at hazard was great. I sprang from the bed, I precipitated myself upon the man who held the packet. With one hand I grasped at the important document, with the other I strove to tear the mask from the robber's face.
The moment Isora's anxiety for me led her across the threshold of my house it became necessary for her honour that our wedding should take place immediately on my recovery: so far I was decided on the measure; now for the method.
I pass on to a certain evening in which I heard from Isora's lips the whole of her history, save what related to her knowledge of the real name of one whose persecution constituted the little of romance which had yet mingled with her innocent and pure life.
Who is he whom you have met, and whom, even now while I speak, you tremble to hear me recur to? Answer me one word: is it this mysterious stranger whom your father honours with his friendship? is it Barnard?" Alarm and fear again wholly engrossed the expression of Isora's countenance. "Barnard!" she said; "yes yes it is Barnard!" "Who is he?"
The Spaniard was dazzled by the prospect of so honourable an alliance for his daughter. From both came Isora's persecution, but in both was it resisted. Passing over passages in the manuscript of the most stormy incoherence and the most gloomy passion, I come to what follows
I therefore took advantage of my knowledge of the neighbourhood, passed the stranger with a quick step, and then, running rapidly, returned by a circuitous route to the mouth of a narrow and dark street, which was exactly opposite to Isora's house. Here I concealed myself by a projecting porch, and I had not waited long before I saw the dim form of the stranger walk slowly by the house.
As the first shock of Isora's departure passed away, I began to suspect the purity of her feelings towards me. Might not Gerald the beautiful, the stately, the glittering Gerald have been a successful wooer under the disguised name of Barnard, and hence Isora's confusion when that name was mentioned, and hence the power which its possessor exercised over her?
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