Roving Jack, The Pirate Hunter — page 225: what you’re looking at

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

ROVING JACK, THE PIRATE HUNTER. NR EEE EEE EE lS She addressed the Patrico, Dick Turpin, for he it was, 1n apparent tremor. “Wretch! not contented with the betrayal of thy friend, Tom King, you must needs seek to in- jure him further by the destruction of the woman whom he holds most dearly in his heart.” Emotion choked her utterance, and she sobbed convulsively. Dick Turpin answered not, but eyed his victim as a hawk about to pounce with winged lightning upon his prey. Both remained silent for some minutes, “ Listen !” at length said Turpin, recovering his composure, ‘ Pity,rather than condemn me. If I have had recourse to cruel means to attain the haven of my hopes, blame me not, but the spirit which holds dominion over the passion. I have been a villain, miscreant, murderer,what ye will,” he continued ; ‘‘ but my ardent nature failed to control my guilt. Thy hbeauteous image, Jael,” frantically exclaimed Turpin, ‘has plunged me deeper and deeper into crime, and like the wretch perishing in the snow, thy love caused me to nestle in the fatal slumber.” Jael at these words bent with terror, Her flowing tears ceased, And she gazed with the vacant stare of an idiot, The Patrico knelt on the dungeon floor, regarding the stupefied maiden with an eye of fire. While a thick veil of oblivion seemed yet to pass over the inmates of the dungeon, Jonathan and his satellites entered by its secret-door. The object of their visit did not seem apparent. But they ranged themselves silently round the unconscious Jael. No one had yet observed from the trap-door in the roof above them a strange-looking spectator who had been watching all that had passed during the last hour. In an attitude motionless, he witnessed thé scene that has passed his eyes. In the very first moments of his mysterious appearance, he had, unnoticed, securely fastened to one of the cross beams of the ceiling a knotted rope, the end of whick reached the stoned floor below. | All at once, on the entrance of the thief-taker and his followers, he sprang from his position, and seized the quivering cord. With feet, knees, and hands, he glided down it like rain from a penthouse. He ran up to two of the men, who were prevent- _ ing Jael, who had swooned, from falling, and felled “them with the blow of his enormous fists, like stricken oxen. ‘ With the swiftness of thought, he seized the fainting girl in one arm‘as a child would a doll. ~ While the other enabled bim to ascend the rope, bearing his burden upwards with the agility of a startled cat. He arrived safely at the summit of the building lefore Jonathan Wild and the others, who literally stood aghast at the daring adventure, could recover from their surprise. They were left in darkness, as the only light which remained in the apartment had been extin- guished in the scuffle. The shock brought Jael to her senses, and she recognised in her preserver the person of the Dutchman, Wirth Wolfgang. On the tower of Newgate, to which he had conveyed the gipsy girl, he fancied, from its isolated position, she would be free from molestation, and that her pursuers would never im agine that he would } SOMIEDOOKS! have the temerity to place her so near the spot of her late persecution. He had judged rightly, for the London criminal is more securely hid in the vast metropolis than on the distant shores of America and Australia, CHAPTER CIX. THE MYSTERY OF THE LEADS AND ROOF OF NEWGATE. It is now necessary to give some short description of Jael’s refuge, and the means by which Wirth Wolfgang was enabled to convey her to this sanc- tuary. It is, perhaps, almost needless to say that the ancient. city of London was surrounded by walls, moats, and ramparts, and entered only by four principal gates, the fifth being added very early in the twelfth century. This gate being more lately built than the others, and supported by two stupendous towers, was called “ New-gate.” For fifteen score years it had been a place of duresse, when it was rebuilt by the renowned Sir Richard Whittington. This and every successive structure retained its original name, and became eventually the common gaol of the county of Middlesex. The building at the period of our story still retained one of the towers of the ancient gate at its south-east angle, and adjoining the prison chapel. The tall column springing from the sombre mass of stone and iron of the prison at its feet, like some black arrow pierced the haze of horizon. To this place, from the house of Jonathan Wild, there was a secret thoroughfare, which, by a for- tuitous chance, the Dutchman has discovered, although such a knowledge was not imparted to the thief-taker, who, with his followers, was totally unacquainted with the existence of such a commu- nication as that stated. Let us now follow Wirth Wolfgang and the trembling Jael on their perilous passage. After his recent affray, the Dutchman succeeded in reaching, with his charge, the open landing of Jonathan Wild’s house, With the stealth of the fox, he crept noiselessly ‘up the broad stairs, and shortly arrived at an open- ing that led to the roof. Without much difficulty he mounted it, and pro- ceeded with caution along the tiles. As he did so the iron-tongued monitor of the neighbouring church of St. Sepulchre proclaimed midnight. The sky was obscured by a sombre clouding, and it was extremely dark. Wirth Wolfgang had to feel his way. h A false step would have precipitated him from the dizzy height to the street below. The venturesome climber gazed for a moment to ascertain if he were followed, and, having satisfied himself that his retreat had not been discovered, he stepped onward more boldly. Having passed Wild’s house, he reached an adjoining building, a story higher than its neigh- bour, Groping about, to his joy the Dutchman dis- covered a ladder. Ascending it, he passed through an open door. He had now reached what was called the lower - leads, It was a flat surface covering the part of the