`` Death will not touch me , the banner-bearer of the pestilence , '' cried Jervase Helwyse , shaking the red flag aloft . `` Death and the pestilence , who wears the aspect of the Lady Eleanore , will walk through the streets to-night , and I must march before them with this banner . '' `` Why do I waste words on the fellow ? '' muttered the governor , drawing his cloak across his mouth . `` What matters his miserable life , when none of us are sure of twelve hours ' breath ? -- On , fool , to your own destruction ! '' He made way for Jervase Helwyse , who immediately ascended the staircase , but on the first landing-place was arrested by the firm grasp of a hand upon his shoulder . Looking fiercely up with a madman 's impulse to struggle with and rend asunder his opponent , he found himself powerless beneath a calm , stern eye which possessed the mysterious property of quelling frenzy at its height . The person whom he had now encountered was the physician , Dr. Clarke , the duties of whose sad profession had led him to the province-house , where he was an infrequent guest in more prosperous times . `` Young man , what is your purpose ? '' demanded he . `` I seek the Lady Eleanore , '' answered Jervase Helwyse , submissively . `` All have fled from her , '' said the physician . `` Why do you seek her now ? I tell you , youth , her nurse fell death-stricken on the threshold of that fatal chamber . Know ye not that never came such a curse to our shores as this lovely Lady Eleanore , that her breath has filled the air with poison , that she has shaken pestilence and death upon the land from the folds of her accursed mantle ? '' `` Let me look upon her , '' rejoined the mad youth , more wildly . `` 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 XXXXX human weakness , a smile of caustic humor curled his lip even then .
On as by from in of that through upon with