Doom

With which the royal virago made an imperious motion for her attendant
sprites in gossamer white to precede her, and turned with her accustomed
stately step to follow. The music immediately changed from its doleful
dirge to a spirited measure, and the whole company flocked after her,
back to the great room of state. There they all paused, hovering in
uncertainty around the room, while the queen, holding her purple train
up lightly in one hand, stood at the foot of the throne, glancing at
them with her cold, haughty and beautiful eyes. In their wandering,
those same darkly-splendid eyes glanced and lighted on Sir Norman,
who, in a state of seeming stupor at the horrible scene he had just
witnessed, stood near the green table, and they sent a thrill through
him with their wonderful resemblance to Leoline's. So vividly alike were
they, that he half doubted for a moment whether she and Leoline were not
really one; but no--Leoline never could have had the cold, cruel heart
to stand and witness such a horrible eight. Miranda's dark, piercing
glance fell as haughtily and disdainfully on him as it had on the rest;
and his heart sank as he thought that whatever sympathy she had felt for
him was entirely gone. It might have been a whim, a woman's caprice, a
spirit of contradiction, that had induced her to defend him at first.
Whatever it was, and it mattered not now, it had completely vanished. No
face of marble could have been colder, of stonier, or harder, than hers,
as she looked at him out of the depths of her great dark eyes; and with
that look, his last lingering hope of life vanished.