desperation all timidity and restraint, he suddenly sprang forward, and
snatching the hand of Cecilia from his mother, he exclaimed, "I cannot,
I will not give her up!--nor now, madam, nor ever!--I protest it most
solemnly! I affirm it by my best hopes! I swear it by all that I hold
sacred!"

Grief and horror next to frenzy at a disappointment thus unexpected,
and thus peremptory, rose in the face of Mrs Delvile, who, striking her
hand upon her forehead, cried, "My brain is on fire!" and rushed out of
the room.

Cecilia had now no difficulty to disengage herself from Delvile, who,
shocked at the exclamation, and confounded by the sudden departure of
his mother, hastened eagerly to pursue her: she had only flown into the
next parlour; but, upon following her thither, what was his dread and
his alarm, when he saw her extended, upon the floor, her face, hands
and neck all covered with blood! "Great Heaven!" he exclaimed,
prostrating himself by her side, "what is it you have done!--where are
you wounded?--what direful curse have you denounced against your son?"

Not able to speak, she angrily shook her head, and indignantly made a
motion with her hand, that commanded him from her sight.

Cecilia, who had followed, though half dead with terror, had yet the
presence of mind to ring the bell. A servant came immediately; and
Delvile, starting up from his mother, ordered him to fetch the first
surgeon or physician he could find.

The alarm now brought the rest of the servants into the room, and Mrs
Delvile suffered herself to be raised from the ground, and seated in a