The Child of Waterloo, or, The Horrors of the Battle-Field — page 134: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE CHILD OF WATERLOO. 181 ‘¢ Wherefore do you do this? Why am I to be thus imprisoned ? What can it benefit you that I should suffer?” ‘You know not.” | ‘‘ Alas! IT donot; but let me write to my friends, and tell them that I am yet alive.” ‘“No, no; that would but excite in them vain hopes of finding you out; it will not do, you must remain alone for some little time.” As he spoke he shut the door upon her and quitted the house. The sound of the door, as it shut with a heavy bang, fell with a sense of loneliness on her heart. The sound fell upon her mind with a sensation she had never yet felt; it seemed as though she were now shut out from the world. Tears came apace, and, perhaps, it was as well they did, for this abandonment to grief, which came upon her, was so in- tense that it destroyed thought, and when she, in some meas- ure, recovered from it, she found the oppression of mind not so complete and appalling as before. ‘¢T will not think,” she exclaimed, ‘‘or I shall go mad; this misfortune is too great. I will yet Jo all I can to preserve my reason. I may yet be released, and if I can but live on, time may, in its round, find me in a happier situation.” CHAPTER XXVI. Mr. HENRY MoRTON and Rafferty Brolickbones, when once they had arrived in London, and came to their journey’s end, began to be painfully conscious that, without a clew of some sort to guide them to the hiding-place of Mabel and her per- secutors, they might as well search through the deserts of Africa, or the woods of America, with about equal chances of success. Rafferty looked at the people passing; they both walked about the streets from one end of the town to the other; but what availed it them ? they saw and were seen, but this did not say much for success in their search. They were both dispirited, and yet neither of them would for some time communicate his fears to the other, for in London, the chance of meeting with any one who was daily about the streets was the merest probability in the world. After a long ramble through the leading thoroughfares one day, Rafferty Brolickbones had been very much disappointed, and they were both fatigued; and Rafferty, looking up in Henry Morton’s face, said: ‘¢ T’m sure, sir, there’s people enough to fill all the world over and over again, but I am thinking we ought to double ourselves over and over again, I can’t tell how many times.” ‘‘Double ourselves a number of times. Rafferty!” said Mr. Morton; ‘‘ and what would be the result of that?” ‘Why, sir, sure couldn’t we, then, walk up and down all the streets at once? and even then we may not meet with her.” ‘‘ Well, well,” said Mr. Morton, ‘‘ this is very sad work, Raf- ferty; I would we could find some trace, or some clew by which comicbooks. com