In his haste, the clasp entered
the beautiful neck, inflicting a deep scratch, from which the
blood spouted; and at the same instant the dead girl opened her
eyes with a shrill cry. Uttering a yell of terror, as well he
might, the man sprang back and gazed at her with horror,
believing that his sacrilegious robbery had brought the dead to
life. Even the two young men-albeit, neither of them given to
nervousness nor cowardice - recoiled for an instant, and stared
aghast. Then, as the whole truth struck them, that the girl had
been in a deep swoon and not dead, both simultaneously darted
forward, and forgetting all fear of infection, knelt by her side.
A pair of great, lustrous black eyes were staring wildly around,
and fixed themselves first on one face and then on the other.
"Where am I?" she exclaimed, with a terrified look, as she strove
to raise herself on her elbow, and fell instantaneously back with
a cry of agony, as she felt for the first time the throbbing
anguish of the wound.
"You are with friends, dear lady!" said Sir Norman, in a voice
quite tremulous between astonishment and delight. "Fear nothing,
for you shall be saved.
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