It being thus, you may believe the deed was
soon resolved on; and 'tis not to be doubted but the parting, the
eternal leave-taking of two such lovers, so greatly born, so sensible,
so beautiful, so young, and so fond, must be very moving, as the
relation of it was to be afterwards.
All that love could say in such cases being ended, and all the
intermitting irresolutions being adjusted, the lovely, young, and
adored victim lays herself down before the sacrificer; while he,
with a hand resolved, and a heart breaking within, gave the fatal
stroke, first cutting her throat, and then severing her yet smiling
face from that delicate body, pregnant as it was with the fruits of
tenderest love. As soon as he had done, he laid the body decently on
leaves and flowers, of which he made a bed, and concealed it under the
same cover-lid of Nature; only her face he left yet bare to look on:
but when he found she was dead, and past all retrieve, never more to
bless him with her eyes and soft language, his grief swelled up to
rage; he tore, he raved, he roared like some monster of the wood,
calling on the loved name of Imoinda. A thousand times he turned the
fatal knife that did the deed toward his own heart, with a
resolution to go immediately after her; but dire revenge, which was
now a thousand times more fierce in his soul than before, prevents
him: and he would cry out, "No, since I have sacrificed Imoinda to
my revenge, shall I lose that glory which I have purchased so dear, as
the price of the fairest, dearest, softest creature that ever Nature
made? No, no!" Then at her name grief would get the ascendant of rage,
and he would lie down by her side, and water her face with showers
of tears, which never were wont to fall from those eyes; and however
bent he was on his intended slaughter, he had not power to stir from
the sight of this dear object, now more beloved and more adored than
ever.
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