The Mysteries of the Court of London Vol. 4 — page 218: what you’re looking at

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

_——-- oe, e THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT 205 ee ee ee —ee Op eee ee ee eee eee aan ewe ees ee Pe ee eee eta a. We are prepared thus to swear,” was Agatha’s reply, delivered in‘a voige so unnaturally firm, and with a look so strangely resolute, that it seemed as if such preterhuman calmness could only be the prelude to a frightful reaction. “Coie, then,” said Loftus a “the sooner the ordeal is over the better. Doctor, tako one of the candles and Rad on.” Thus speaking, the young man opened the dining-room door, and mado way for Maravelll to pass out. He then beckoned the three sisters to follow ; and this they did with a degree of firmness which amazed him, although so white were their countenances that they looked like moving corpses! Ou issuing into tife hall, Loftus hastened to un- lock the door of the dissecting-room: and still bidding Maravelli lead the way, he stood aside to see the three sisters enter before him. And they did enter: but the moment they crossed the threshold, and when the sickly odotk of the dead struck upon their senses, they shuddered visibly— stopped short—and sudde sly turned towards each other, as if all their uunatural courage wero now giving way at the supreme moment, and they were about to cling to one another for support. But again was Emma's courage the first to revive, and also to pour its inspiration into the souls of her sisters: for she, having all that Bergami had said uppermost in her mind, was auimate® with a con- fidence which they had not the same motive for ‘possessing. wv They therefore all three duce again armed them- selves with the utmost of their fortitude; and in this manner did they advance into:the room. Maravelli stood by, holding the light; and Jocelyn Loftus, qnteving immediately behiud the girls, closed the door. But, Ah! what pen can depict the horror that ' now seized upon those unfortunate youngaromen? Confusion and dismay—anguish and wenderment! ' While Agatha’s eyes remained rivetted upon the corpse of her child, the looks of her sisters had been thrown upon those other two dead bodies . that lay there: and as Emma at once recognized | a ete aenGeiees ic the countenance of her late paramour Colonel Malpas, Julia recoiled In affright from the first glimpse which she caught of the features of the Earl of Curzon. Then did a succession of agonizing shrieks thrill forth—followed by Shys- terics and faiuting. e These were the quick and alarming consequences of the tremendous spectacle. But fyom the ejacu- lations of hurror and the agonizing syllables which first thrilled from the lips of Emma: and Julia, Loftus at once gathered that the dead bodie: which by a coincidence that almost seemed providential had been brought hither that vight, were those of the Eurl of Curzon and Colonel Malpas, the two young women’s pdramours | Cruelly distressed at the turn which the drama had thus taken—having deepened into an excess of horror which he had little foreseen and was very far from intending—he hastened to throw open the door agam; and by the doctor's assist- ance he bore the now fainting girls, one after the other, away from the terrific svene into the dining- room. Agatha, who had instantaneously caught the infection of her two sisters’ wild terrors, and Whose own nerves had been so paiufully distended for some hours past as to bo casily unstruog al® in ee oF i «=e ws us ecs os SER OT WE Nein, ae cieciniow Ds iia a “Uy eq | aera i en 2 ete ee wR OR oa & moment,—had not swooned outright ag Emma and Julia had done, but had burst forth into a kind of hysterical delirium, in which she unconsciously made all the confessious which Jocelyn Loftus had been so desirous to obtain. Meanwhile, as we before stated, Lady Prescott and the Countess of Curzon—unable to retire to rest—were sitting together in the drawing-room. All on a wudden terrilicecries, screams, and‘ hyste- rical shrieks reached their ears; and a3 in their present siate of mind a far less ominous circum- stance thau even this would have been sufficient te fill their sou's with terror, they started up and exchanged looks of fearful import. Conscious guilt invanably associates with itself every occur- rence chat seems at all threatening, no matier how trivial or how foreign to its actual circum. stances itmeybe. Thus wasit that an iodeseribable horror, mingled with dread misgiviugs, seized at once upon the twd patriviaw murderesses, and made them spring up from their seats as if suddenly gaivanized. The screams continuing, the two ladies went forth on the landing. They heard the names of Curzon and Malpas thrilling forth upon voices fraught witn rending anguish: and now their souls seemed to burn with the scathing ¢ fleets of ineffable terror, Tho vuice of the doctor was heard’ vociferating to Mavolta to bring water, vinegar, and emeliing salts; and the quick sounds of footsteps through the hall, as the physician and Jocelyn conveyed the wretched girls to the dining- rooin, all tended to prove that sumething unusual, strange, and extraordinary was going on. Wild with alarm, and her feelings now excited toa pitch utterly beyond endurance, Lady Prese. tt and the Countess of Curzon descended the stairs. On reaching the hall, they beheld two doors stand- ing open, and from both of which lights were streauing. Oneof these doors Lady Prescott had never seen open before all the time she had been at the doctors house; antl perceiving that the other door which stood open was that of the dininz-room, if naturally struc® Mer that the shrieks of anguish she had heard had proceeded from the former place ere thése who had uttered them were borne into the latter apartment. Quick as thought alone can travel, dd this idea strihe her; and impelled by a curiosity now excited to 4 fearful -indeed, t» an awful pitch—she bastened towards that door which stuod open at the eud of the passaze ead:ng from the hall. Lady Curzon, inspired by kin-ired feelings, mechavically followed her; and tovether did they enter the dissecting- room, where ghe caudle which Maravelli had left upon the tuble at once showed them the fearful objects that lay stretched on that anatomical board! For the corpse of the child they had no eyes nor thoughts: all their attention-—all their in- terest—a'l their id as, were in a moment rivetted and absorbed in the dread s,ectacle of their two murdered victims, lying there stretched out before thera ! For nearly a minute did they stand gazing in mute horror, their countenances ghastly pale, and with a paleness too which settling upon their olive complexions pave to their features a corpse-hke hue similar to tie faces of the dead, Then, as if simul- taneously seized with the same goading terror, they turned awny, exchanging a quick look of indescrib- ee es re ae eR SS OE ee ee Ee Oy EL Ree og ee _ (© qynateentemgenpes bnclye 6 aE eee 7 ECOMNIE OG cS) CO