{"product_id":"2940013709034","title":"St Irvyne","description":"Red thunder-clouds, borne on the wings of the midnight whirlwind,\u003cbr\u003efloated, at fits, athwart the crimson-coloured orbit of the moon; the\u003cbr\u003erising fierceness of the blast sighed through the stunted shrubs,\u003cbr\u003ewhich, bending before its violence, inclined towards the rocks whereon\u003cbr\u003ethey grew: over the blackened expanse of heaven, at intervals, was\u003cbr\u003espread the blue lightning's flash; it played upon the granite heights,\u003cbr\u003eand, with momentary brilliancy, disclosed the terrific scenery of the\u003cbr\u003eAlps, whose gigantic and mishapen summits, reddened by the transitory\u003cbr\u003emoon-beam, were crossed by black fleeting fragments of the tempest-\u003cbr\u003eclouds. The rain, in big drops, began to descend, and the thunder-\u003cbr\u003epeals, with louder and more deafening crash, to shake the zenith, till\u003cbr\u003ethe long-protracted war, echoing from cavern to cavern, died, in\u003cbr\u003eindistinct murmurs, amidst the far-extended chain of mountains. In\u003cbr\u003ethis scene, then, at this horrible and tempestuous hour, without one\u003cbr\u003eexistent earthy being whom he might claim as friend, without one\u003cbr\u003eresource to which he might fly as an asylum from the horrors of\u003cbr\u003eneglect and poverty, stood Wolfstein;--he gazed upon the conflicting\u003cbr\u003eelements; his youthful figure reclined against a jutting granite rock;\u003cbr\u003ehe cursed his wayward destiny, and implored the Almighty of Heaven to\u003cbr\u003epermit the thunderbolt, with crash terrific and exterminating, to\u003cbr\u003edescend upon his head, that a being useless to himself and to society\u003cbr\u003emight no longer, by his existence, mock Him whone'er made aught in\u003cbr\u003evain. \"And what so horrible crimes have I committed,\" exclaimed\u003cbr\u003eWolfstein, driven to impiety by desperation, \"what crimes which merit\u003cbr\u003epunishment like this? What, what is death?--Ah, dissolution! thy pang\u003cbr\u003eis blunted by the hard hand of long-protracted suffering--suffering\u003cbr\u003eunspeakable, indescribable!\" As thus he spoke, a more terrific\u003cbr\u003eparoxysm of excessive despair revelled through every vein; his brain\u003cbr\u003eswam around in wild confusion, and, rendered delirious by excess of\u003cbr\u003emisery, he started from his flinty seat, and swiftly hastened towards\u003cbr\u003ethe precipice, which yawned widely beneath his feet. \"For what then\u003cbr\u003eshould I longer drag on the galling chain of existence?\" cried\u003cbr\u003eWolfstein; and his impious expression was borne onwards by the hot and\u003cbr\u003esulphurous thunder-blast.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe midnight meteors danced above the gulf upon which Wolfstein\u003cbr\u003ewistfully gazed. Palpable, impenetrable darkness seemed to hang upon\u003cbr\u003eit; impenetrable even by the flaming thunderbolt. \"Into this then\u003cbr\u003eshall I plunge myself?\" soliloquized the wretched outcast, \"and by one\u003cbr\u003erash act endanger, perhaps, eternal happiness;--deliver myself up,\u003cbr\u003eperhaps, to the anticipation and experience of never-ending torments?\u003cbr\u003eArt thou the God then, the Creator of the universe, whom canting monks\u003cbr\u003ecall the God of mercy and forgiveness, and sufferest thou thy\u003cbr\u003ecreatures to become the victims of tortures such as fate has inflicted\u003cbr\u003eon me?--Oh! God, take my soul; why should I longer live?\" Thus having\u003cbr\u003espoken, he sank on the rocky bosom of the mountains. Yet, unheeding\u003cbr\u003ethe exclamations of the maddened Wolfstein, fiercer raged the tempest.\u003cbr\u003eThe battling elements, in wild confusion, seemed to threaten nature's\u003cbr\u003edissolution; the ferocious thunderbolt, with impetuous violence,\u003cbr\u003edanced upon the mountains, and, collecting more terrific strength,\u003cbr\u003esevered gigantic rocks from their else eternal basements; the masses,\u003cbr\u003ewith sound more frightful than the bursting thunder-peal, dashed\u003cbr\u003etowards the valley below. Horror and desolation marked their track.\u003cbr\u003eThe mountain-rills, swoln by the waters of the sky, dashed with direr\u003cbr\u003eimpetuosity from the Alpine summits; their foaming waters were hidden\u003cbr\u003ein the darkness of midnight, or only became visible when the momentary\u003cbr\u003escintillations of the lightning rested on their whitened waves.\u003cbr\u003eFiercer still than nature's wildest uproar were the feelings of\u003cbr\u003eWolfstein's bosom; his frame, at last, conquered by the conflicting\u003cbr\u003epassions of his soul, no longer was adequate to sustain the unequal\u003cbr\u003econtest, but sank to the earth. His brain swam wildly, and he lay\u003cbr\u003eentranced in total insensibility.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat torches are those that dispel the distant darkness of midnight,\u003cbr\u003eand gleam, like meteors, athwart the blackness of the tempest? They\u003cbr\u003ethrow a wavering light over the thickness of the storm: they wind\u003cbr\u003ealong the mountains: they pass the hollow vallies. Hark! the howling\u003cbr\u003eof the blast has ceased,--the thunderbolts have dispersed, but yet\u003cbr\u003ereigns darkness. Distant sounds of song are borne on the breeze: the\u003cbr\u003esounds approach. A low bier holds the remains of one whose soul is\u003cbr\u003efloating in the regions of eternity: a black pall covers him.t","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47165714858224,"sku":"2940013709034","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013709034_p0.jpg?v=1763584239","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013709034","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}