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Calderon the Courtier, a Tale, Complete by Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton
page 49 of 76 (64%)
opposite, which reflected in full light the features of Calderon and
herself. It was then--her natural bloom having faded into a paleness
scarcely less statue-like than that which characterised the cheek of
Calderon himself, and all the sweet play and mobility of feature that
belong to first youth being replaced by a rigid and marble stillness of
expression--it was then that a remarkable resemblance between these two
persons became visible and startling. That resemblance struck alike, and
in the same instant, both Beatriz and Calderon; and both, gazing on the
mirror, uttered an involuntary and simultaneous exclamation.

With a trembling and hasty hand the novice searched amidst the folds of
her robe, and drew forth a small leathern case, closed with clasps of
silver. She touched the spring, and took out a miniature, upon which she
cast a rapid and wild glance; then, lifting her eyes to Calderon, she
cried, "It must be so--it is, it is my father!" and fell motionless at
his feet.

Calderon did not for some moments heed the condition of the novice: that
chamber, the meditated victim, the present time, the coming evil--all
were swept away from his soul; he was transported back into the past,
with the two dread Spirits, Memory and Conscience! His knees knocked
together, his aspect was livid, the cold drops stood upon his brow; he
muttered incoherently and then bent down, and took up the picture. It
was the face of a man in the plain garb of a Salamanca student, and in
the first flush of youth; the noble brow, serene and calm, and stamped
alike with candour and courage; the smooth cheek, rich with the hues of
health; the lips, parting in a happy smile, and eloquent of joy and hope;
it was the face of that wily, grasping, ambitious, unscrupulous man, when
life had yet brought no sin; it was, as if the ghost of youth were come
back to accuse the crimes of manhood! The miniature fell from his
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