The Mysteries of the Court of London Vol. 7 — page 325: what you’re looking at

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

Gnap@ieess ates cep 312 hold a spectacle which suddenly transfixed him with mingled awe, wonderment, and horror. It was a much emaller room than that which had been fitted up for the tribunal: but the walls were likewise bung with black draperies. Upon a couch the corpse of Sagoonah was laid out. She seemed as if she were only sleeping—so serene was her aspect, and «0 completely was the freshness of the body preserved. There was in the atmosphere @ perfume of drugs; which at once indicated the embalming process that had been adopted to en- sure that preservation. A cap of snowy whiteness completely concealed the dead ayah’s coal-black hair: her naked arms, stretched at her, sides—not atiffly, but in a life-like manner—had rich bracelets upon them. Very beautiful appeared that corpse, —seeming as if the breath of life had only just passed out of it, and as if it had been surrendered up without a struggle: for immediately after the cold hand of death had touched Sagoonah, her fea- tures had settled down into that serenity which they now wore. Indeed, she looked not as if she were dead—but only sleeping after a severe indis- position which bad spread an uniform pallor upon the natural duskiness of her complexion. Four wax candles, as tal) as those tepers which arg.cseen on Catholic altars, shed their light upon the corpse, and produced tat effulgence which streamed forth from the half-open door into the room fitted up as the tribunal, Powerful was the a ae es ae 4 t ‘ “e sustre, and sulemnly grand was the effect thereof upon the body. It brought out the form of the dead Sagoonah into the strongest relief: it gave the animation of life to the skin; and it played upon her features as if they themselves were slightly moving with the presehce of existence. Amidst all the wildest conjectures which the Duke of Marchmont might have basarced relative to the contents of this room, no pdssible surmise could have led him to anticipate the spectacle which he thus bebeld. As we have said, therefore, he stood trangfixed with mingled awe, wonderment, and horror: for it- seemed as if death itself were now invoked to bear some kind of evidenca agailist him. For upwards of a minute Gid Queen Indora suffer the scene to produce its fullest effect upon the prisoner; and then in a tone of authority she bade him advance further into tht room. He obeyed her : she closed the door; and he was now alone with that royal lady and with the corpsé of Sagoonah. ‘ “‘ My lord,” said the Queen, in a voice that was low and most solemnly impressive, “ you are not altogether innocent in respect to the causes which led to the premature death of the hapless Sa- goonsh. I will not however deny that her mind was already in a morbid state when you employed the vile Frenchwoman to becoufe her temptress, and instigate her to the foulest deeds. Had it not been for this conduct on yeur part, Sagoonah might have lived. But step by step was she led un to that fearful climax which was the accom- plishment of ber doom. I¢ was retribution that che met! The means which she had adopted to fake my life at the instigation of your agent, be- wae the source of her own death. The tragedy Slis'a horrible one ; and I do not hesitate to pro- ‘Gaim that Sagooush was one of your victims. Qh { if you had never done aught but this, it were sufficient to @) your soul with a remorse that & THE MYSTERERS OF 1H" COURT ee ee a> Ei eee ee ™ SEE a <--> @ never in this life would be appeased! But greater atill have been your crimes; and, asI ere now pro- claimed, this is the hour in which they are all to be made known, Prisoner, look upon that corpse ! It is the corpse of her who in the maduese of feel- ings and passions which I shall not pause to de- scribe, gave up your own brother to the dungeon- cell which he now tenants.” “ My brother!” murmired the Duke of March- mont, staggering at the words, as if they touched a chord which vibrated most painfully to his heart's core. “ ‘Yes—your brother !” continued Queen Indora : and now she bent thd look of an avenging Nemesis upon the Duke of Marchmont. “Oh! think you that the proceedings of this night were ended when in the adjoining room I enumerated all your minor orimes,— crimes which though great in themselves, were nevertheless nothing to that which has yet to be proclaimed! And yet even that too was darkly hinted at—but not so darkly that it failed to touch your conscience! Do you not perceive that the finger of heaven has mani- feasted itself in all the incidenta and cocurrences which have been hurrying you on towards the catastrophe? By the agent of your own villany were you stricken down, so that in the first mo- mente of returning consciousness you might be- tray to that vile Frenchweman—another agent of your iniquities—the tremendous secret which for nearly twenty years must have sat like a hideous nightmare upon your soul!” It would be impossible to describe the ghastly horror which the countenance of the guilty March- mont displayed, while Queen Indora was thus ad- dressing him. He trembled from head to foot with a series of visible shudderings: the perspira- tion buret forth cold and clammy upon his brow: all his features were convulsed: it seemed as if he were about to fall down and writhe in fearfullest agony like a stricken serpent. , “But even: without the testimony of that Frenchwoman,” continued indora, “ was there a sufficiency of acsumulated proofs to brand you with the full etigma of your enormous guilt. Do you doubt me? No!—you cannot! Yet step by atep shall you pass through this ordeal. Oome with me.” The Queen drew aside the sable drapery at the end of the room facing the door by which she and ‘the Duke Bad entered from the tribunal; and another door enabled them to emerge upon the landing. This Indora traversed,—still followed by the Duke, who mechanically dragged himeelf along, but in a atate of mind that it were impos- sible, to describe. If ever a man felt that hell might’ be foretasted upon earth, and that it was possible to pass through a series of worldly horrors sufficient to prepare the soul for the torments of hereafter,—that man was the Duke of Marchmont. All his energies eesmed now paralysed: he was obeying the Queen only as an automaton might have acted: his faculties wore growing so numbed under the influence of intensest, most harrowing horror, that had she, being immortal or invulner- able, led the way into 9 fiery furnace, that wretched man would perforce have , iously and mechanically followed her. She opened a door on the opposite side of the landing; and she conducted him. into a littl room ‘4 COMIC DOO|KXS.COM