The Mysteries of the Court of London Vol. 4 — page 225: what you’re looking at

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

212 THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. eet ncaeieeeinieecaecaeeeeacieenemminetniee mes! & below they ovortook the three aseneeins, upon { perceiving at the first glance that one of the whom they seized and who turned to defend themselves. Here it was pitch dark; and the struggle took place in the dense obscurity. Loftus and Bergami, having cach grappled with his man, held them fast with desperate tenacity ; and a third remained to attempt the rescne of friends, but dared not uss his dagger to stab at random in the dark, lest he should wound them instead of their assailants. As for the two men themsolves who were thus seized upon, so firmly were they pinioned by our hero and tho royal equerry, that though violent were their strug- gles, yet were their arms held fgst and they could not use their weapons. In less than a minute the villa was all alive— doors were opening—female voices were heard giving vent to deafening shricks—and the men- servants came rushing down from the upper- most storeys. Lights were brqught to the scene of action: and there Mernani and Walden were fuund safe pinioned in the grasp of Bergami and Loftus—while Kobolt, the moment the gleam of the first light flashed upon the figure of the royal equerry, was seized with so mortal a terror that he staggered against the wall, his limbs becoming as heavy as lead and disabling him from flight. For it naturally struck him that this was the same person whom but a minute or two back he had felt assured that he had left dead at the end of the passage below. The capture of the three men was now effected without much difficulty by the aid of the domes- tics who appeared upon the scene; and from something which Kobolt in his terror and be- wilderment let fall from his lips, Loftus and Bergami at once praceeded to Mrs. Ranger's room. They knocked at the door, and in a voice of alarm from within she asked, “Who is there P” ‘** Open, madam—open !” exclaimed Loftus, in @ commanding tone. ‘* No—no—I cannot—I am undressed,’’ half soreamed the wretched woman, all hor courage breaking down ju a moment; for it struck her that the murderers had been arrested and that everything was discovered. Without another word did Bergami and Jocelyn burst open the door; and instead of finding Mrs. Ranger disapparelled, they at vnce perceived that she had not laid aside a single article of raiment, nor made tho slightest pre- paration to retire to rest. From their looks did she gather the full confirmation of all hor dircat terrors; and falling at their feet she ex- tended her arms, crying, “ Mercy, mercy !”’ “'Wrotched woman!’ exclaimed Bergami, “what horrors have you been guilty of! Mur-‘ deress that you are, what pardon can there be for you f” Mrs. Ranger heard no more—her senses were abandoning her—and with a hollow moan of deepest despair, she sank down in a death-like swoon. Meanwhile a distressing—oh! a wildly dis- tressing scene had occurred close by. Alarmed along with the rest of the kousehold by the cry of murder which Loftus and Bergami had sent forth, Agatha and Julia nad issned from their ohambers to find that their sister, from whom they had parted but little more than half-an- hour back in the fulness of vigorous health, Waa NOW & lifeless bleeding corpse. Oh! what ineffable anguish was now experienced by those young women—and how tremendous was the remorse that sprang up in their guilty souls, on very means adopted to achieve the ryin of the Princess, had rebounded upon their own heads! For they understood it : their unfortunate sister bad beex mistaken for Bergami—and attired in the agparel wherewith sho was wont to personate him, had thus mea premature and dreadful death! But we must draw a veil, at least for the pre- sent, over the manifold feelings exvited by the incidents of this dreadful night. Suffice it to say that tho police authorities were immediately fetched from Geneva—that Mrs. Ranger and the three murderers were borne off to prison —and that Agatha and Jthlia, now ina state bordering upon frenzy, were left at the villa under the surveillance of an officer of justice. ‘CHAPTER CLXIV. THE SrFUNGING-HOUBR. IN a dirty, dingy-looking, dust-begrimed »arlour at Mr. Moses Ikey’s spunging-houre in Fetter Lane, Mr. Emmerson was pacing to end fro. Bars were at the windows ; and though the sun was shrining brightly—for it was mid-day—its beams werp deadoned by the dirty medium of the window-panes, which appeared as if they had not been washed ontside since the last rain a fortnight back, while thoir inner side appeared utterly innocent of any contact with water at all. The fnrniture was heavy and massive, but in a sadly neglected condition: indeed it was unpossible to walk a step on the carpet without raising a cloud of dust, or to placo the finger anywhere without leaving a spot where the dust was thus lifted away. The door was kept locked; and whenever Mr. Emmerson wanted anything, he had to ring the boll about a dozen times before the summons was answered. Then, when a dirty girl with red hair and an unmistakable Hebrew physiognomy, did condescend to make her appearance, she took double the time to procure what he asked for. If he required to take exercise, he had to descend into a little yard at the back of tho house about sixteen feet wide by thirty in length, and having an arched iron grating ovecr- head, so that it seemed like walking to and fro in & Case. Exactly three weeks had Mr. Emmorson been at the spunging-house, raising heaven and earth to extricate himself from his pecuniary difficul- ties, in order: that he might escape out of the country before the forgery should be discovered. But-each day beheld his position growing more and more hopeless; and refusals as well as rebuffs came from every quarter to which he thought of applying. He had induced his wife to make an earnest appeal to her relations for a loan; but here again a negative was ex- perienced. Hxecutions were put into the house at Clapham—everything was swept away—fur- niture, plate, horses, carriages, all the emblems symbols, and appurtenances of luxury an ostentation—away they went! The ruin was complete; and Mrs. and Miss Emmerson, after haying cut such a dash in that neighbour- hood, were compelled to sneak away in a hackney-coach after dusk, a trunk and a bandbox containing the few articles of cloth- ing which they had been enabled to abstract from the greedy grasp of the sheriff's officers. Then taking refuge in a small furnished lodg- a ed eS LDOC ( O) cS) CO