Six Years Ago Author:James Grant Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. ISAAC BENISEAEL, THE JEW. ATHER! Father! Father!" cried a voice, amid the gloom—the shrill and excited voice of a woman, the sound of which se... more »emed not unfamiliar to the ear of Ludwig, and he felt the nervous grasp of the infuriated Jew relax, as the hands of the latter were torn from his throat. Stunned and confused alike by the blow he had received, the fall and the sudden manner in which he had been assaulted, Ludwig felt powerless of resistance, though full of apprehension and wonder. Amid the dusk of the place, which was lighted by a solitary lamp, and the aspect of which he failed then to discern, he could only perceive that the wild gleaming eyes and waving beard of the dreadful old Israelite were replaced by the soft and attractive face of a girl possessed of more than common beauty. Her eyes were dark and bright; their expression tender, but decided ; her hair black and wavy. Where had he seen this face before ? In what atmosphere ofdoppel-gangers, of doubt, diablerie, and double identities was he becoming involved again ? Was his reason weakened by suffering and anxiety, or his brain by loss of blood ? Had the fact of the Herr Doctor and Colonel being one, affected him ?— for, to his fancy, the face that bent so tenderly over his, seemed in its bold and brilliant beauty not unlike that of Aloisa, the notary's niece whom he had last seen at the ball in the Stadt Theatre, and who perished so terribly. He closed his eyes in perplexity and weariness of thought; but when he looked again, he recognised in the girl Judith, the unknown female whom he rescued from the four boors near the church of St. Gudule. So she was the daughter of that dreadful Jew, whose name was a byword in the Prussian tents, and whom, amid the obscurity, he could now hear mu...« less