`` Let me behold her in her awful beauty , clad in the regal garments of the pestilence . She and Death sit on a throne together ; let me kneel down before them . '' `` Poor youth ! '' said Dr. Clarke , and , moved by a deep sense of human weakness , a smile of caustic humor curled his lip even then . `` Wilt thou still worship the destroyer and surround her image with fantasies the more magnificent the more evil she has wrought ? Thus man doth ever to his tyrants . Approach , then . Madness , as I have noted , has that good efficacy that it will guard you from contagion , and perhaps its own cure may be found in yonder chamber . '' Ascending another flight of stairs , he threw open a door and signed to Jervase Helwyse that he should enter . The poor lunatic , it seems probable , had cherished a delusion that his haughty mistress sat in state , unharmed herself by the pestilential influence which as by enchantment she scattered round about her . He dreamed , no doubt , that her beauty was not dimmed , but brightened into superhuman splendor . With such anticipations he stole reverentially to the door at which the physician stood , but paused upon the threshold , gazing fearfully into the gloom of the darkened chamber . `` Where is the Lady Eleanore ? '' whispered he . `` Call her , '' replied the physician . `` Lady Eleanore ! princess ! queen of Death ! '' cried Jervase Helwyse , advancing three steps into the chamber . `` She is not here .
There , XXXXX yonder table , I behold the sparkle of a diamond which once she wore upon her bosom .
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