The Mysteries of the Court of London Vol. 7 — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

ee HR MYSTERIES OP THD COUBS. fore be very diffeult to find out where she had evertheless, some from. she had evidently been walking far; for her shoes were worn ‘right through—her stockings, also—and the,soles of her feet weré cat and bleeding.” Here Oragy Jane gave a deep convulsive ; and Haggoring against the grave-stone, the concise ption, she leant over it weeping bit- Several minutes thus elapsed, until she suddenly raised her countenance again; and then it wore a look #0 altered-—so wild—that the old sexton felt convinced the poor creature was now no longer in a frame of mind to listen to his story. And she herself speedily made him aware that he was parfectly right. “ No more now!” she ejaculated: “not another word for the present! Wht you have said is im- pressed here /’—and she pointed vehemently three or four times to her forehead: “but my brain could bear no more|”—and there was a maniac wildness in her eyes, ‘Ob, I have already heard too much=-too much! Another time, old man, I will come back and bear what,more you have to say. Ah! you took me for a beggar.and a mendi- cant,” she ejaculated, suddenly stopping short as she was just on the very point of coming away : then, diving her hand down into her pocket, she brought forth three or fuur shillings; end flinging them towards him, cried, “ Go drink to the health of Crasy Jane |” With these words she hurried away; and turn- ing the angle of the church, was lost to the view of the old sexton, who stood gaging after her until she thus disappeared. “She is a atrange creature,” he muttered to himself, as he stooped down and picked up the coins: “I hope she will keep her word and come back—for she evidently knows something about the poor lady. Or perhaps after all it may only be a portion of her madness? ‘Yet it would be strange, though, that she should know the colour of her bait and eyes: for now that I bethink me, when the poor lacy’s hair did grow again, it was black. I wonder whether———But we shall see all in good time, no doubt. Orasy Jane is pretty sure to return. But where is that precious assistant terly. ' of mine all this while P” | We will explain the real dause of the Burker's somewhat abrupt disappesgance and prolonged absence, under the pretem of fetching a mattock from old Oarnabie’s ootfage, though he knew per- fectly well that the intplement had been left along with others, on the previous evening, inside the , church-porch. The fact is, Mr. Barnes did not like the appearance of the mad woman. On the night that she had so suddenly presented herself to him end the sexton, he was smitten with a cer- tain suspicion; and therefore he had teken very good care not to speak a single word, for fear his voice should be recognised. ao precipitately, he buoyed hope that she would not re neighbourhood—bat that her steps, 68 wayward | and unsettled ag, eleewhere. Now the same ‘he was again svised with alarm; ear {0 that terror, had suddenly absented p window of old bie’s cottage, he | N woman and the sexton as they stood t ra ' P rd] — & the pretext which we have described, Oarna in discourse together fa the churchyard; and as he pergeived by her mannér and that she was much excited, he feared lest the con- vereation regarded himeclf; but when ébe so preei- pitataly hurried off again, ead the sexton stood in & musing manner for a few minutes, the Burker’s courage revived. “If it was me they was talking of,” he said to himeelf, “ they would have gone off at once to raise the whole willageand hunt me down like a mad dog.” The Burker thereupon issued forth from the cot aud hastened to rejoin old Oarnabie: but we will interrupt the progress of our narrative for a few moments, to depict the precise nature of the Burker’s apprehengions. He had of courses read the hewspaper-accounts of Lettice Rodsey’s trial at Liverpool ; — and beyond what we ourselves have recorded on that subject in our narrative, the journals had given several minute particulars in respect to the female who without being brought forward in Court, had nevertheless, through the medium of another spe- cies of deposition, given so important a turn to the proceedings. The caterers for the public press had described her as a poor wandering maniac who had for some years been known in the neighbour- hood of Liverpool: they had delineated her per- ; sonal appearance, and had added that she was usually known by the denominatica of Orazy Jane. All thege particulars had Barney the Burker read at the time, for they were transferred from the prq- vincial to the London papers; and thus when the woman 60 suddenly appeared befure old Oarnapie and himself in Woodbridge churoh-yard, he had been smitten with the apprehension that she was the person whose testimony, presented in writing to the Court, had led to the acquittal of Lettice Rodney, the incarceration of Mrs. Webber, and the subsequent arrest of himeelf. Still the Burker was not completely sure that thie woman who now haunted the neighbourhood of Woodbridge, was in reality Crasy Jane—though he had certainly little doubt on the subject. He rejoined the old séxton, as we have slready ssid; and a furtive look, hastily flung upon Car. nabie’s countenance, convinced the miscreant that nothing disagreeable or threatening had transpired in reference to himeelf, Well, where is the mattook P” asked Jonathan, somewhat surlily: “‘and what mede you such a long time in |goking for it #” “Tt was just because I could not find it that I stayed so long,” answered the Burker; “ and now [ recollect, it’s along with (other things in the porch yonder. But you've had that poor mad creetur’ a chattering away with you ata gallows’ rate |” “T can’t rightly make her out,” responded the sexton: “she is as demented as one can be in some —and yet she seems as if she had a sort of ity on one subject.” “And what's that?’ inquired the Burker, as if with an alr of indifference. “Wh abt the poae lady os is buried wy replied Jona pola to the grave headed by . the stone with the eonsise inscription. “It appears as if she knew that lady; and so I was telling hee the sad zomangice siory—which, by the bye, I pro- “Well, ba she belied sway agait tke qd” fa pas away ¥ uy GORMGOOOKSHEOn