"
The family of the proscribed were about to obey this mandate, when Jacques
Colis abruptly threw down the emblems of a bridegroom, tore the contract
in fragments, and publicly announced that he had changed his intention,
and that he would not wive a headsman's child. The public mind is usually
caught by any loud declaration in favor of the ruling prejudice, and,
after the first brief pause of surprise was past, the determination of the
groom was received with a shout of applause that was immediately followed
by general, coarse, and deriding laughter. The throng pressed upon the
keepers of the limits in a still denser mass, opposing an impenetrable
wall of human bodies to the passage of any in either direction, and a dead
stillness succeeded, as if all present breathlessly awaited the result of
the singular scene.
So unexpected and sudden was the purpose of the groom, that they who were
most affected by it, did not, at first, fully comprehend the extent of
the disgrace that was so publicly heaped upon them The innocent and
unpractised Christine stood resembling the cold statue of a vestal, with
the pen raised ready to affix her as yet untarnished name to the contract,
in an attitude of suspense, while her wondering look followed the
agitation of the multitude, as the startled bird, before it takes wing,
regards a movement among the leaves of the bush.
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