And there--amidst this awful and tremendous eternity of strife and
power--stood two beings whose momentary existence was filled with the
master-passion of humanity. And that passion was yet audible there: the
nature without coal; I not subdue that within. Even amidst the icy
showers of spray that fell around, and would have frozen the veins of
others, Godolphin felt the burning at his heart. Constance was indeed
utterly lost in a whirl and chaos of awe and admiration, which deprived
her of all words. But it was the nature of her wayward lover to be
aroused only to the thorough knowledge of his powers and passions among
the more unfrequent and fierce excitements of life. A wild emotion now
urged him on; something of that turbulent exaggeration of mind which gave
rise to a memorable and disputed saying--"If thou stoodest on a
precipice with thy mistress, hast thou ever felt the desire to plunge with
her into the abyss?--If so--thou hast loved!" No doubt the sentiment is
exaggerated, but there are times when love is exaggerated too. And now
Constance, without knowing it, had clung closer and closer to Godolphin.
His hand at first--now his arm--supported her; and at length, by an
irresistible and maddening impulse, he clasped her to his breast, and
whispered in a voice which was heard by her even amidst the thunder of the
giant waters, "Here, here, my early--my only love, I feel, in spite of
myself, that I never utterly, fully, adored you until now!"

CHAPTER XLI.

LUCILLA.--THE SOLITUDE.--THE SPELL.--THE DREAM AND THE RESOLVE.

While the above events, so fatal to Lucilla, were in progress at Rome, she
was holding an unquiet commune with her own passionate and restless heart,
by the borders of the lake, whose silver quiet mocked the mind it had, in