Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 272: what you’re looking at

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

ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIES OF AN ACTRESS. eS 259 a OL OOO eee “Oh, don’t you see,” she exclaimed, “that it is; enough !” added the dame with a ery of rage; all to prevent us from giving evidence to-morrow | “ and Zarah will go unrevenged! Tho villain St. at the Old Baney !” “ Ah!” T ejaculated, as a light now suddenly Clair will escape !” “ Are you confident of this?” IT asked. ‘“ Were burst in upon my brain; and I at once recognised | you not bound over as a witness to appear at the probability of the dame’s explanation. “Yes, | the trial? —and if you do not answer to your yes—it must be so! That ill-looking man—and | name, will not the process be ordered to stand then Lady Lilla ‘ “What do you mean, Miss?” quickly demanded Dame Betty. “Speak, speak!”—and she almost | accent of angry contempt. ‘Has | are upon such points? However, how you are stamped her foot with feverish impatience. Lady Lika dared to interfere es “T can only tell you this much,” I answered,— 33 over “ Ridiculous!” interrupted the dame, with an “ How ignorant you enlightened a bit; for I tell you that St. Clair will get off—he will be discharged without a stain “that justas I was on the point of setting out | upon his character! The judge will take care to yesterday morning, an ill-looking man was seen | tell him ¢his,—becauso he belongs to the patrician 3? loitering about in front of my house order—an ex-Minister —a leading statesman— 3 * Well, well! was if one of these men?” de- | man of reputed wealth 4 manded Dame Betty. “ Hush!” I interrupted the crone, whose ‘voice “T do not know,” I responded: “I did not see | kept rising to a higher and higher key until it the mam yesterday morning: it was Beda—the faithful and sagacious Beda—and she had her mis- givings “But what concerning Lady Lilla ?” asked the | dame, — threatened to rend the very walls themselves with a pealing scream, and I was really afraid lest the anger of the two ruffian guards might be excited, “Pray be more cautious !—for we are in the power | | of lawless wretches, and the threat which was jus “ A few minutes after I had left the house,” I | now held out is not the first that ever met my ears rejoined, “a cab swept past the postchaise in| in thisroom. It was here that Mr. Collingwood which I travelled ; and Lady Lilla Essendine was | in that cab. It might have been nothing but a | | capable of putting them into execution, how much bP] coincidence “No! no!” interjected Dame Betty: “there are no such things as coincicences in matters of this sort! I never knew that suspicious circum- stances turned out to be mere coincidences! But there used to rage a fierce hatred betwixt St. Clair and Lady Lilla “¢ “Ah!” I interrupted her; “surely your saga- city must make you aware that crime has its ex- pediency and its policy; and there are bonds which hold together hearts that otherwise throb with mutual hatred. It is not three months ago that I myself beheld St. Clair and Lady Lilla seated together in the same box at the theatre 4 “Oh! it is now all apparent enough!” ejacu- lated Dame Betty, again with a ferocious expres- sion of rage upon her haggard, shrivelled counte- nance: “it is all clear enough !—that fair-haired Lilla and the handsome St. Clair are again friends! Ob!—and am I to be cheated of my vengeance 4 “Peace !” J interrupted her; for she was now giving vent to her fury in accents that were half vociferating, half screaming. “ You know what those men told us—and therefore if you value your life you will forbear from creating a disturb- ance ! I am sure the wretches are capable of | gave vent to the most horrible menaces; and if I then believed—as in truth I did—that he was more readily ought I to believe the same of these wretches in whose hands we now find ourselves!” ‘They may as well kill me at once as inter- pose between me and my vengeance!” shrieked forth the dame, so that I now thought she was going mad. “What else was I living for?— what for weeks and weeks past has been my hope by day and my dream by night? Ah! and now to have it disappointed!—Oh, it is more than i can endure !” I was on the point of rushing towards her, to compel her by some means to hold her peace— perhaps even to place my hand upon her mouth —when the door opened, and the two men reap- peared. | “Hold your cursed row, beldame!” said the junior of the two. “ Here’s bread, and meat, and butter, and tea,”’ said the other, who usually acted as spokesman; “and you must manage to make yourselves as comfortable as you can. But if we hear any more screaming or shrieking, my good dame “Tet me go, wretches!” she vociferated ; and she produced upon my mind the impression of some wretch rendered insane by the reactionary. influence of her own diabolic spells. The foremost ruffian aimed a blow with his every atrocity; and if it was from Lady Lilla | cudgel at the dame’s head; but she fortunately Essendine that they received their instructions, | shrank back in time;— and I, rushing forward, these will have been of no mediocre character. exclaimed, “Coward! you would not strike a But tell me, why did you say just now that the | woman!—an aged one, too, such as she 1” words which one of the men had spoken, confirmed your previously existing suspicion that we have been carried off and imprisoned here to prevent us from appearing at the trial of Edwin St. Clair?” “Because it is not quite sure that the villain St. Clair’s trial will come on to-morrow in London. It might be by some accident postponed —and therefore the intimation has been given to us that the term of our captivity cannot be indicated to & day or to an hour. Ob, it is all intelligiblo | “Tet her hold her tongue, then,’ growled the fellow, with a sombre, sullen fierceness. “ Why does she go on with her aggravating ways ?—But I see you haven’t lighted: your fire! Well, you ean do as you choose on this point: it’s no busi- ness of our’n.” : The articles of food which the men had brought were duly deposited upon the ricketty old table ; and then they retired—but not before they had bent another menacing look upon Dame Betty, Comicboo —— (E(0)