"Ho! ho!" said the Dwarf, "thou vauntest thyself a philosopher? Yet,
shouldst thou not have thought of the danger of intrusting thyself,
young and beautiful, in the power of one so spited against humanity, as
to place his chief pleasure in defacing, destroying, and degrading her
fairest works?"
Isabella, much alarmed, continued to answer with firmness, "Whatever
injuries you may have sustained in the world, you are incapable of
revenging them on one who never wronged you, nor, wilfully, any other."
"Ay, but, maiden," he continued, his dark eyes flashing with an
expression of malignity which communicated itself to his wild and
distorted features, "revenge is the hungry wolf, which asks only to tear
flesh and lap blood. Think you the lamb's plea of innocence would be
listened to by him?"
"Man!" said Isabella, rising, and expressing herself with much dignity,
"I fear not the horrible ideas with which you would impress me. I cast
them from me with disdain. Be you mortal or fiend, you would not offer
injury to one who sought you as a suppliant in her utmost need.
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