The prince gavo himself up for a long time to the sweet
pleasures of this solitude, turning his smiling glance first to the
heavens where a few white clouds were floating, and then again to
earth, where some glittering insect attracted his gaze.
But what was it which pierced through him with a deadly horror--
which made him become so pale, and turn his flashing eyes with an
indescribable expression of dread toward the hut? Why did he
partially arise from his reclining position as the hunter does, who
sees the prey approach that he wishes to destroy? What was it that
made him press his lips so tightly, one against the other, as if he
would repress a cry of agony, or an execration? And why does he
listen now with bated breath, his gaze fixed upon the hut, and both
hands raised, as if to threaten an approaching enemy? Suddenly he
sprang up, and rushed trembling to the door, and, while in the act
of bursting it open, he fell back, pale as death, as if his foot had
trodden upon a poisonous serpent. Thus retreating, with wildly
staring eyes, with half-open lips, which seemed stiffened in the
very act of uttering a shriek, he slowly left the hut, and then
suddenly, as if he could no longer look at any thing so frightful,
he turned and fled from the spot as if pursued by furies.
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