`` Take off those abominable spectacles , and you can not help seeing it . '' Now , these colored spectacles probably darkened the cynic 's sight in at least as great a degree as the smoked glasses through which people gaze at an eclipse . With resolute bravado , however , he snatched them from his nose and fixed a bold stare full upon the ruddy blaze of the Great Carbuncle . But scarcely had he encountered it when , with a deep , shuddering groan , he dropped his head and pressed both hands across his miserable eyes . Thenceforth there was in very truth no light of the Great Carbuncle , nor any other light on earth , nor light of heaven itself , for the poor cynic . So long accustomed to view all objects through a medium that deprived them of every glimpse of brightness , a single flash of so glorious a phenomenon , striking upon his naked vision , had blinded him for ever . `` Matthew , '' said Hannah , clinging to him , `` let us go hence . '' Matthew saw that she was faint , and , kneeling down , supported her in his arms while he threw some of the thrillingly-cold water of the enchanted lake upon her face and bosom . It revived her , but could not renovate her courage . `` Yes , dearest , '' cried Matthew , pressing her tremulous form to his breast ; `` we will go hence and return to our humble cottage . The blessed sunshine and the quiet moonlight shall come through our window . We will kindle the cheerful glow of our hearth at eventide and be happy in its light . But never again will we desire more light than all the world may share with us . '' `` No , '' said his bride , `` for how could we live by day or sleep by night in this awful blaze of the Great Carbuncle ? '' Out of the hollow of their hands they drank each a draught from the lake , which presented them its waters uncontaminated by an earthly lip . Then , lending their guidance to the blinded cynic , who uttered not a word , and even stifled his groans in his own most wretched heart , they began to descend the mountain . Yet as they left the shore , till then untrodden , of the spirit 's lake , they threw a farewell glance toward the cliff and beheld the vapors gathering in dense volumes , through which the gem burned duskily . As touching the other pilgrims of the Great Carbuncle , the legend goes on to tell that the worshipful Master Ichabod Pigsnort soon gave up the quest as a desperate speculation , and wisely resolved to betake himself again to his warehouse , near the town-dock , in Boston . But as he passed through the Notch of the mountains a war-party of Indians captured our unlucky merchant and carried him to Montreal , there holding him in bondage till by the payment of a heavy ransom he had woefully subtracted from his hoard of pine-tree shillings . By his long absence , moreover , his affairs had become so disordered that for the rest of his life , instead of wallowing in silver , he had seldom a sixpence-worth of copper .
Doctor Cacaphodel , the alchemist , returned XXXXX his laboratory with a prodigious fragment of granite , which he ground to powder , dissolved in acids , melted in the crucible and burnt with the blowpipe , and published the result of his experiments in one of the heaviest folios of the day .
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