Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 24: what you’re looking at

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ee ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS. i — 11 to me. He declared that throughout his life he had never until within the last few weeks com- mitted a single deed of a nature calculated to trouble his mind as he lay stretched upon the bed of death. But within those few weeks it was different! He had done something in the perpe- tration of which he had considered himself fully and completely justified at the time; but now that the hand of death was upon him, grave and serious doubts had arisen in his soul whether it were not a crime which he had thus committed. Indeed it was a terrible vengeance which he had wreaked; and I shuddered from head to foot, while my blood ran cold within me, as I listened to his explanations. It appeared that his daugh- ter—his only child, whom he had loved with the fondest parental devotion—had been basely seduced by a young nobleman ? It was here with the greatest difficulty that I could prevent an ejaculation from escaping my lips. The tale which was being told, seemed sud- denly to be fitting itself into the framework of circumstances already known to me. I however conquered my emotion; but it was with suspended breath and with the deepest suspense that I lis- tened to the progress of the clergyman’s narra- tive. “ Yes,” continued the Reverend Mr. Singleton, “the unfortunate gentleman’s beloved and only daughter had been rendered the victim of a most atrocious villany: she had perished, and her babe with her! Then this gentleman resolved to wreak a terrific vengeance upon the author of these calamities. The name of this guilty young noble- man was not mentioned to me: the gentleman had pledged himself, it appears, to respect the secret of the fearful chastisement which he in- flicted on his daughter’s seducer. And what think you was this chastisement? The vindictive father had enticed the young nobleman to the house which he occupied at the time; and there, in the same room where the dead daughter and the babe lay,—there, in that room, certain ruffians hired for the purpose seized upon the young nobleman, held him forcibly in a chair, and upon his brow impressed a red-hot iron !” “Good God, Miss Percy! you are ill!” ex- claimed Mr. Singleton the surgeon, springing up from his chair. “Come with me into the next room!—No! no!” he ejaculated, thus address- ing himeelf to his wife and his brother; “do you both of you remain here !”—for they likewise had now sprung up from their seats, and were anxious to render whatsoever assistance lay in their power. I had not swooned—I had not lost my con- sciousness: on the contrary, all my mental faculties were most keenly and vividly alive within me. But a deadly pallor had come over my coun- tenance: I had started as if galvanized with sudden horror; and then I had sunk back in my chair. Mr, Singleton led me from the sitting. room, and conducted me into his surgery, where he gave me volatile essences to inhale; and I quickly recovered—or rather, I should say, re- gained my self*possession. And now, when [I glanced up at his countenance, I saw in a moment that Lord Frederick Ravenscliffe’s fatal secret was no longer in my keeping alone ! “Do not be excited, Miss Percy!—compose yourself!” he said, with a kind voice and look, “It is one of those extraordinary coincidences which some persons would call accidental, but which I cannot help looking upon as evidences of the inscrutable working out of providential de- signs !” “Tt is useless, Mr. Singleton, for me to deny,” I said, in a low voice, ‘‘ that you have fathomed one of the most fearful mysteries which ever came within my knowledge!” “Ah! then, it is so!” ejaculated the surgeon. “Good heavens! that wretched young nobleman! But his unfortunate wife—does she also know it ? and is she striving to keep it secret from her father P” * No~Oh, no!’ I exclaimed; “ heaven forbid that she should learn this hideous truth! But leave me here by myself for a few minutes,” I continued; “return to your brother—ascertain from him whether that gentleman of whom he was speaking actually died 7 “ T can answer this question, Miss Percy,” responded Mr, Singleton, “without seeking my brother for further information; because when he began to tell my wife and me the tale before you knocked at the front door, he commenced by saying that he had the day before yesterday at- tended at the death-bed of a penitent who died in peace in his arms!” “Then Mr. Gower is no more,’ I thought within myself: “the avenger is gone to his last account! And oh! was not his life cut short be- neath the blighting influence of that wickedness which crushed his hapless daughter down into the grave? Frederick Ravenscliffe, you have indeed much to answer for !” “You are reflecting sorrowfully and painfully, Miss Percy,” said Mr. Singleton, gently breaking in upon my meditations, “This is a frightful secret which has been in your keeping !” “And lest you should think it strange, Mr. Singleton,” I responded, “that the hideous secret should be known to me, and not to the wife of the delinquent sufferer himself, I must give you some explanations.” I then told Mr. Singleton a sufficiency of past events to make him comprehend how it was that I had been a witness of the horrible ceremony of branding Lord Frederick Ravenscliffe: I informed the surgeon that it was merely through motives of the kindest consideration for Juliet that I had in any way aided her husband to keep his disgrace a secret; and I concluded by repeating the vehe- ment, impassioned, and anguished language in which Lord Frederick had spoken to me on the preceding day when he alluded to suicide and the various means that had suggested themselves to his fevered imagination for accomplishing the work of self-destruction, * And now tell me, Mr. Singleton,” I said, “why did you ask me to come to your house on the present occasion? why did you seek a private interview with me?” JT will tell you, Miss Percy. During my in- terview in the forenoon with Lord Frederick Ravenscliffe, the suspicion entered my mind that there was something kept in the background— some mystery enveloping him! Indeed, I shared the suspicion which Mr. Norman had previously confessed to me with frankness, that the tale of COMMU SSS NOOK (©)