The Young Duchess; or, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

38 SHE YOUNG DUCHESS ; water. Besides, somebody must go down to make | the door fast—and you may as well do it.” .. “T won't, Bill,” she replied emphatically. “ You 0. ate and [ll take.care that———” She said no more, but looked aigaincanely to- wards the prisoner. “Now I say you shall go !” exclaimed Bax. “It’s all nonsense,” he added, with an oath. “I never saw nothing and never heard nothing——” “Then I won't go, Bill. I tell you that I would’nt move about in the old mill after dark for ten times the money that Tim has gone up to London to get. I know she walks!” “Take a candle for once, you fool!” growled Bax; and in a menacing manner he clenched a fist that would have felled an ox. “Tt’s of no use, Bill,” she doggedly replied. “T almost think I should be more afeard with a: : candle than without it. | They say she walks with her throat cut from ear to ear ” “Bother take the woman !”—and Bill Bax gave vent to a terrific oath. ‘ Well then, keep tight hold of this stick, and Jean with your back against the door.” “Trust to me,” answered his wife; and again she looked significantly towards the lady, as much as to imply that there was no chance of her es- caping.. At the same time she took. up the club; and her husband, furnishing himself with a couple of large pitchers, issued from the room. He took no light with him; and as soon as he was gone, his wife placed herself with her, back against the door, holding the stick in her hand. . The disguised lady had affected to be perfectly indifferent to the preceding colloquy ; and while it was in progress she had seemed to be again giving way to her reflections. She suffered about a minute to elapse after Bax had left the room: then she rose up, as if suddenly starting from a reverie; and she said in a sort of careless man- ner, ‘ This must be a wretched dull kind of a life | that you lead in this place.” “Well, it’s not very lively,” answered the woman, whose eyes followed her as if she was a cat,watching a mouse. . The lady was lounging near the table: she took up the loaf of bread, and all in a moment she let it drop straight down on the top of .the candle. Instantaneous darkness ensued. Mrs, Bax gave vent to a cry of mingled rage and ter- ror; and almost at the same time there was a tre- mendous crashing noise—for the lady upset the table, with all the preparations of supper that were upon it. Mrs. Bax was astounded and be- wildered: but she kept her place and furiously brandished the club in the dark, so as to ward off the attack which every moment she expected to be made upon ‘her. _ But the lady’s policy was altogether of another character. In the twinkling of an eye after she had upset the table, she bounded to the trapdoor and raised it. Therope and pulley that had been used for raising the sacks, were suspended over the trap. To let down the coil was the work of an instant; and in another twinkling of an eye down that rope the lady was gliding ! She reached the bottom in safety,—a distance of about forty feet. She had now all her presence of mind about her; and she so regulated her pro- .she was in utter. darkness ; Just leave me that,”—and she glanced at the OR, MEMOIRS OF A LADY OF QUALITY. ceedings that she did not alight with too much violence on the boards of the ground-floor. But and she knew not which way to, turn in order to find the means of egress. Neither had she a moment to lose; for she knew that Bax would be immediately return- ing—and. heaven only could tell to what ex- tremities his rage might drive him when he should discover what had happened. She groped, her way; and as good luck would have it, her hand encountered the large wooden latch of a door. It yielded to her touch ; and as the door opened, she beheld the glimmering of moonlight upon the water, and the fresh breeze fanned her cheeks. There was the bridge within view, so that she was suddenly struck by the conviction that she was now in the little passage by which she had in the first instance been conducted into the mill. On she glided; she reached the outer door— and.there.she, beheld Bax stooping down on the bank of the stream, from which he was filling the pitchers, Another instant; and the lady, now rendered desperately intrepid, rushed upon him and hurled him into the water. Down he plunged ;, and as he came up to the surface again, the very first object he beheld was a figure gliding across the plank. He was for a moment too much blinded by the water to recognise the person: but as he quickly scrambled up on the bank, he drew his hands rapidly across his eyes, and then per- ceived the disguised lady hastening across the bridge. A tremendous imprecation burst from his lips; and the. next moment he was in full pursuit. . Hastening!, no, it was rather flying on the part of the disguised lady! for she had the wings of desperation and terror attached to her feet.. Away she flew,—Bax rushing, after her. He.called out loudly for her to stop: but the sound of his voice only tended to enhance her speed. She glanced over her shoulder—she saw that he was gaining upon her—on she sped! Another look thrown be- hind—and now she was distancing him. She knew that she was safe! . A few minutes more; aud he was no longer to be seen. Completely out of breath—panting and exhausted—the lady threw herself upon a grassy bank; and there she rested—but still: keeping her eyes, riveted on the direction whence the ruffian might emerge if he were maintaining the pursuit. However, be appeared not—he had doubtless abandoned the chase as hopeless. When she had recovered her breath, the lady continued her way, her heart leaping with j joy at this successful result of her daring exploit. ‘‘ Now, at least,” she thought to herself, “I am on the safe side! The bankers might to-morrow suspect something wrong, and might detain Gaff- ney until he should give proper explanations, or until they had communicated with me. In that case my doom would have been sealed!—for no- thing could have been more horribly significant than the threat that I should not live to appear as a witness against him !” The reader will now comprehend that it was from the moment this threat was made, the lady had resolved to run every risk in an endeavour to effect her escape. The thought of the trap-door had flashed to her mind; and she had asked for water to drink as an expedient for getting rid of one of her custodians, in the hope that by some means she would be enabled to outwit the other, COMO YN Wn) Colin