The Mysteries of the Court of London Vol. 4 — page 393: what you’re looking at

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$80. THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. nthem. In short, this female keeper acted ke as scrvant and custodian—waiting upon the young ladies at their meals, following them when they walked in the pleasure-grounds: and sleeping in the middle bed at night. When Agatha and Julia were first brought to Dr. Dupont’s asylum, they were in a per- fectly rabid state of insanity: but the results of kind and humane treatment soon mado themselves manifest; and now, at the expira- tion of six weeks from the date of their ad- mission, we find the two unhappy youn ladies in a compari&tively composed andtranqui condition. Not that their minds had recovered their healthy equilibrium, or that their ideas were rescned from the whirl of donfusion: but the savage instincts which had made them rave in maddened frenzy, and not only threaten their own lives but likewise the safety of all who approached them, were completely lulled down ;— and though still deprived of the light of reason, they at_least appeared to be harmless ! " They knew each other, arfd were indead always together. Side by side did they con- atantly remain. If one rose from the window- seat and approached the table, the other would accompany her: whatever the one partook of, tho other selected the same thing. -‘ome- times Agatha would sit down at the piano and pl y some air, extemporaneonusly cém- posed: immediately she quitted the music- stool, Julia would occupy it, and play pre- cisely the same notes. The recollection of ail tne airs and musical pieces they had once known, was utterly gone: but with the re- markable eccentricity of minds that are aber- rated, they could thus remombcr what each other played at the time. It was the samo with the books which lay about tho room. If Agatha took up a volume, Julia would take up another: then when Agatha laid aside her’s, Julia would take it up instead of her own—while Agatha would instantaneously ossess herself of the one her sister had just id down. They awoke at the same hour in the morning, and withopt thd interchange of a word scemod always to be simultanéously prompted by the same desire as to walking out in the pleasure-gfounds, taking refresh- monts, or retiring to rect. In those two shat- tered minds there was a wondrous identit of thonght and feeling: in those two bruiso and almost broken hearts, there scemed tor exist a commen inclination—an invariable oneness of purpose. They seldom spoke to cach other; and when they did, it was in the lan- guage of the insane—giving utterance to wild rhapsodies and the strangest notions ; and yets they always seemed to understand each other. They would sit for hours, gazing forth from the windows with their eyes apparently ri- veted upon the same object in the distance: and yet Dr. Dupont’s experience told him that on these occasions they were both alike gazing upon vacancy. There would have bees something deeply interesting, ase well as touchingly pathetic, in the case of these two sisters, were it puos- sible to divest the mind of that feeling of Tl a, loathing and abhorrence which their pro-« fligacies and their wickedness were but to well calculated to engender. Indeed, all persons in the Republic of Goneva who were aware of the past history of the two sisters, as de- veloped during the trials of Mrs. Ranger and the threo fishers of men, were astonished that the Princess of Wales should have shown so much gencrosity towards: these young women who had entered with such direful purpose into ¢he pay of her enemies ;—and the vory fact of this axcessive benevolence on the part of her Royal Highness, wgs ac- tuaily made a handle against her by thafe who had beén led to think lightly of her character. In fact, this unfertunate Princess was always destined to suffer from the sceming imprudence of her generosities,—hoer very virtues thus raising as it were tke voive of accusation inst her. So was it in the tase of Bergari, whom through motives of goodness she took into her service: and‘ so ulso was it now in the case of the two young ladies, whom through the sincerest commiseration she placed at her own expense in Dr. Dupont’s lunatic asylum. Suspicious people, and those who were fond of fgossipping and scandal-mongering, shook their heads know- ingly,—saying, “ After all, the Princess must have done btonfething iz which these girls were her confidantes: otherwise she would not now provide for them so handsomely. But she doubtless fears that if she abandons them altogether, they would turn round upon her if ever they recovered their reason, and would proclaim all they knew.” But to continue our tale. It was, as we have already hinted, about six weeks from the admission of Agatha and Julia into the asylum—and about two.,months from the date of those dreadful deeds which closed in the fearful catastrophe of their sister Emma’s murder—that we now peep into their chamber and behold them setted together at the window. It was the hour of noon; and the September sun was shining gloriously upon the wild expanse of scenery that embraced s0 many and such varied features of interest. There was the charming city of Geneva— there was that crescent-shaped inland sea —-there were the eminences on the opposite shore, dotted with villages, farmhouses and villas—and there too were the snow- capped Alpine heights in the distance. But the two young ladies beheld naught of all that interesting scene: their eyes were fixed upon vacancy—and there was nothing in their thoughts. At the same timo, Mra Owen and Mary were wending their way, from Geneva to- wards the lunatic-asyluam. A month had elapsed since they had arrived in the re- publican city; and cach day they had called at Dr. Dupont’» ostablishment to ascertain whether that gentleman would permit them to see Agatha and Julia. Hitherto, however, he had meeting, under the apprehension that it might tend most alarmingly to unsettle the minds of his patients. On the one hand it was possible that Agatha and Julia might not recognize their mother and sister:—but on the other hand it was far more probable that they would; and were such the case, the treatment which Dr. Dupont was pursuing might be seriously interfered with. As a matter of course, Mrs. Owen and Mary had yielded to these representations; but as we ave already observed, day after day did they visit the asylum in the hope of receiving a favourable response.* ‘“T have a presentiment,’’ said Mary to her mother, as they approached the establish- ment on the occasion to which we are now specially, referring, ‘“‘that we are this day to behold my poor afflicted sisters :’—and as =_ - pe ee ge ET LE a e 2wagee@ibwte =s «- . Peer een compelled to interdict such a : COMMU OL AOC) cS) CO