The Mysteries of the Court of London Vol. 7 — page 332: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTBRIES OF TAB COURT. Se. oe song borne the title of Duchess of Marchwont. All vital tixt seemed to have fled from that coun- tenance: even the very lips were of marble pale- neas. Its expression was ao haggard, so care-worn, so woe-begone, that even if she herself had been criminal it would have excited pity: but innocent in every respect as they knew her to be, it filled , their hearts with anguish to look upon the face of that afflicted lady. The clorgyman—a venerable man—bowed ta the twins with the profoundest respect, and contemplated them with a mournful interest: for he had known their parente—and ho was indebted to their father for the incumbency which he held. The physician likewise saluted the young Duke of Merchmont and Lady Christina Vivian: but the dying nobleman covered his face with his thin wan hunds, and groaned audibly. _ Lavinia tried to speak—but ehe could not: her voice was chuked wath the intensity of her feel- Ings: yet her eyes eloquently proclaimed the gratitude she experienced for this visit of pardon which they paid tu her perishing busband. As for that man himsclf —he also tried toyive uttgr- ance to some words; ahd he essayed likewise to raiso himeelf up in tho couch: but®the puoyer of speech seemed to have gone from his palsied throat, and that of motion from his tranced linbs. Another attempt on Lavinia’s part to say something to the young pair, proved 1oelfeotual : for the first sounds 8f the syllables that wavered on her lips, died away in a spasm of intensest agony which excruciated her whulo frame. She burst into tears: and seizing tho hand of each of the twins, she pressed them by turns to her lips. Christina throw her arms round Lavinis’s ucck and wept passionately upon her busoin: while Chris- tian tremuluusly murmured, “ We are here to assure your husband of forgiveness!" “Oh, this is more than I could havo expected !” monned the dying nobleman, now finding utter- ancy dur a few broken sentences. “I who have been 80 wicked—so deeply atuined with guilt ~I who deprived your father of his life—Oh, Chris. tran! - Christina !—it is more than I ouvlit to have hoped!—But, my God! éven now that you eare here, I cannot lovk you in the face!” And again did the wretched wan cover his countenance with his hands. “Tf your penitence be elncecro—as I trust and hope and believe it is,” suid Christian, in @ aoft vuice, “receive the assurance of my pardon—aad dhat of iny sister!” “Can you furgive meP is it possible that you can furgive me P” asked the dying man. “Oh, what hearts do you both possess! It must be a paradise to have such hearts as yours: but mite cannot understand them! Yes, Christian—my penitence is sincere. O God! with such remorse as this, bow can there be Sthorwise than cuon- trition? My cunfession is made: you are Duke of Marchmont. I need not ask that you and your amiable sister will be kind to my pour wife 7 “Think not of me, Hygh!” gnaped forth tho afflictud Lavinia. “ I shall not Jong survive you. I feel it here /’—and with an expressivn of inef- fable anguish on her countenance, she pressed her band upon her heart. “ Ohristian, you have furgiven me,” continued the dying nobleman, in a hollow voice ; and at the $19 RAR ie ee oe me iy ee eo same time his equally hollow eyes were turned towards our hero; “and auch generutity on your pert will experience its reward. The same with Christina. Ob, if I dared blesu you-—-But no, no! blessings from my lipp———” * Remember,” eaid Obristiar, “that a Redeemer died to savé us from the consequences of our ans; and for our blessed*Saviour’s sake the mercy of God is illimitable !” “Oh, these are words of solece, coming from your lips!” murmured thé dying man: and he made a movemént as if he would the hand of our young hero. “Tt is a sign of forgiveness which frem my heart Ieafford you!” said Oh n:and he at once gave his hand ta tho perishidg ‘penitent. At the sanie moment a change camd suddenly and visibly over the countenance of the latter: its paleness grew durpse-like —the ¢yes appeared to sink deeper into their sockete—some words to which he eould not give audible utterance, wavered upon his lips: then came a low moan, followed by @ gasp—and next by a strong spasm, which seemed to thrill painfully through the penitent’s form— and then all was over! ‘ There was a profound and solemn silence for the space of several moments; but Lavinia appeared uncertain relative to thé supreme fact. She gazed with a dismay—half wild, half awe-felt—upon the countenance of her husband: then she swept her looks around upon those who stood with her by the side of the couch; and she read in their faces the truth to which she had striven to close her convic- tions. <A piercing cry burat from her lips; aud whother she fell forward or threw herself upon the corpse, was not apparent: but there ehe lay, mo- tiuniess as he upon whose form ber head rested. Fur several instants those who beheld the unfor- tunate Lavinia, fancied thaé she was abandoning horsulf to a profound aad absorbing woe which had supervened on that s@iden access of wild despair: but as ahe moved not, afd as not so much as even a sob or a sigh wos wilted to their-earg, they grew giirned. They raised her: thore was a small pool of blood on the counterpano at the spot where her rovuth had rested; and the physician pronounced her to be a corpse. Deeply, deeply affected wore the twins, as they suifered thefaselves to be led forth from that cham. ber of d@ith. Tuey rejoined the Queen, to whom they confounis the details of the ead scene they bd&J witnessed; and Indora mournfully re- marked that it were better for Lawinia to have died thus, than to have lived to deplore a husband who was unworthy of her lamentation. Her Majesty and tho twins retired to their respective chambers to rest for a few hours: but sleep closed not the eyes of either of them. The man who had ec long borne the title of the Duke of Marchmont, was néw no more: he had passed beyond thkt sphere in which his crimes would bave rendered bim amenable to human laws—he had gone to that ether world; in which ho was to po in tho presence of a more dread tribunal. Wut his wife, who had bees an angel on eurth, bad Zope at the same time to be an angel in heuven ; and it was a touching refloction, made by the twins tu each other, that the hapless Lavinia Had taken that eternal flight at such a moment tu eeltomemns, intercede at the footstool of eternal grace for the | ECOMRniclacae SS (CO)