Ivan the Terrible; or, Dark Deeds of Night — page 75: what you’re looking at

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

71 THE GHOSTS HOUSE IN THE LONELY ROAD. (Concluded from page 64.) — ; Why stand ye aghast ?” she exclaimed, loudly, to Frederick, as | ! he advanced towards her. ‘‘ Am I not your mother? from this breast | received not thy infant lips its nutriment? protect her young, but the human species forsake their offspring, nay, murder them. Ha, ha, ha! thou hast drawn down my vengeance on thyself, and shall repent thy temerity.” tracted mind asshe continued, ‘© No, Frederick, you call yourself my son ; but such you are not. My son is dead ! assassinated in cold blood—by me,lis mother, the © unhappy Catharine.” Taking advantage of the opportunity that appeared offered to himself, Frederick took gently the hand of Lady Edgeworth, and persuasively addressed her, “* Do not tremble, dear madam, all may yet be well, reparation made, and forgiveness accorded. Answer me fearlessly: those papers which you possess, you have not destroyed them I hope, for upon their contents rest the destiny of many lives?” ‘¢ T have them still.” “ Indeed !” «J have secreted them.” ‘© Where ?” ‘© Where you shall never find them. Insensate, think you I am as madas thou art? torob my boy of his just birth-right—myself ambitious of one tittle of my claim? Thou art crazed, I tell you— ha, ha, ha !”’ The idiotic Jaugh of Catharine Edgeworth was followed by the | calm sigh which presages dissolution, and the unhappy woman once more relapsed into her previous comportment. ‘© How shall I succeed ?”’ thought Frederick, as he witnessed her sombre and taciturn. A sudden idea came to him, and he retired noiselessly from her presence. In a few minutes he returned, masked and disguised in the cloak he had but recently taken up in the garden, and which had been dropped by him of whom he had been in pursuit—Tony Foster. ~ His entrance for the instant startled Lady Edgeworth, who sprang to her feet, but was calm when she recognised the figure, and ex- claimed, ' ‘©So you have succeeded in yourerrand, and Adah Latimer is in the power of the law’s myrmidons? You do not answer me, Tony Foster.” This remark was sufficient to dispel the wavering doubts of the officer, who hesitated to reply to the first portion of the question until he could ascertain for whom in reality the demented woman took him. Now thoroughly assured, he answered with firmness, <¢ All goes on as well as your ladyship can desire, and, ere this, your hated foe who steps between you and fortune is securely lodged between the four stone walls of one of her Majesty’s gaols.”’ The manner and mien of Tony Foster were so well assumed’ on the part of Frederick, that his companion neyer for one moment suspected the imposition that was being practised upon her. The sudden intimation, too, which she had received occasioned an outburst of joy, and, as if some spring of extraordinary interest had been inadvertently touched, became rationally communicative. ‘© T will tell you my secret, Tony Foster,” said Lady Edgeworth ; “‘not to indulge thy curiosity, but to confound my enemy, Adah Latimer; believe me, I have no other motive. She has provoked her fate, and Providence at last has granted my prayer for venge- ance. A wide domain, a wealthy husband, and titled name were intended for me, when this despised girl crossed my path and took from me the bright inheritance. Had I not been endowed by nature with wily arts, 1 mizht have become an outcast; but the brother of my first love wooed me as his second, and led the way to gratify my hate—~” ‘© You will pardon me, madam,” said Frederick, still feigning the voice of her confidant with consummate skill and accuracy, “ for interrupting you, but [have just bethought me that, unless we act with caution inthis matter, our present design may be frus- trated. “© How so ?” replied the Lady Edgeworth, quickly. ‘© On making my deposition,” continued Frederick, ‘‘ a counter- charge was preferred against you. It was asserted that you had papers in your hands which would prove that your ladyship was implicated in the very crime of which you had accused your enemy.” 4 ‘Those papers would decide against me were they produced in a court of justice; but they were with those you destroyed last night !’ Yes, the lioness will | _ she had been, but a ravine maniac. Here a ray of reason seemed to light up for the moment her dis- | re “ Traitress |”? exclaimed Frederick, enashing his teeth and throw- ing off his disguise, “you have killed the mother, and the malediction of the son rests on your head !” The vehement exclamation of Frederick sped as a fiery bolt to the brain of Lady Edgeworth ; she was no longer the reasoning woman She shook with fury in every limb ; a ghastly foam issued from her mouth and nostrils, while her intensely cunning eye flashed with a preternatural and horrid glimmer. “ Avaunt, satan!”? screamed the hag, in her madness. ‘“‘I am in league with Heaven, and can burst thy puny chains asunder. Hence! you have despoiled its sacred altars; you have slain its priests, and would sacrifice me who am its instrument of vengeance. Think not to capture me, for I have the power of the eagle and can cleave the air like the feathered king of birds. Follow me not, or you rush upon destruction !” With these words the infuriate woman rushed to the parapet that guarded the lofty spiral staircase that ran from the top of the house to its basement. In fancied security the crazed creature threw herself forward and fell at least sixty feet. Frederick, in trepidation, hastily descended the steps and found the unfortunate woman a quiverifig mass of livid flesh. . * She was so disfigured and bruised that every trace of her once beautiful countenance was destroyed, and as he advanced an ex- piring shriek which curdled his blood told him that her spirit had taken its earthly fiight. — She was dead ! As Frederick gazed on the dreadful spectacle he was aroused by a gentle tap on the shoulder; he looked up and diseovered the shrauees who had accompanied him on his ride to London that night. The stranger spoke not, but by gestures signified he required his attendance. Singularly fascinated, the officer obeyed the summons, and found himself conducted to the very spot where Tony Foster had disappeared. He was astonished by the unnatural sounds that proceeded as it were from beneath his feet; the cries at first seemed those of some wild animal, then a hideous moan as though some wretched creature was suffering from the death pangs of thirst and hunger, and lastly he could distinguish clearly they were the Jamentations oF tes human being undergoing the ordeal of torture of mind or ody. Turning to address his eompanion Frederick was surprised to discover in his place the figure of another person. Paralyzed with fear he would fain have fainted, but was once more reassured when he found that the figure was the shadow of Manetho. CHAPTER XII. DOOMED TO A DREADFUL DEATH—THE LAST TIME THE GHOST WAS SEEN. THE roof of the sepulchral abode was of solid masonry, and rose on Wide arches of singular censtruction. It was lighted only by the misty moonbeam that glimmered like a sickly flame througha small crevice in its walls. ~ The place was loathsome, damp, and underground. An opaque shadow fell upon the ground. It was that of Tony Foster. He paced the vault in which had been concealed for twenty years the martyred, murdered son of Lady Edgeworth. “Tt is here,” exclaimed Tony. ‘I will place the papers which will one day make me lord of this domain.’’ Here he drew one paper from the bundle he held in his hand. “‘This,” he said, ‘confirms the guilt of my haughty mistress. She gave me orders to destroy it.’’ Tony was about to rend the frail letter, when he suddenly stopped short in his intention. “‘ No; the fragments will betray me. Let fire consume the evi- dence of her guilt.” He replaced the paper, and advanced to a corner of the dun- eon. e W hat stood there ? A Ponterous chest of iron. y arm quivers, I can scarcely raise the lid,” said Tony Foster ; * but I will raise it though I eae it to eterni ie porte “SAGO . COMIEVOO