The Mysteries of the Court of London, Vol. 7 — page 23: what you’re looking at

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

12 After a four hours’ rapid drive, the Duke in- formed Eliza that they were now entering upon the estate; and in another half-hour an antique edifice, appearing above the embowering groves, broke uponthe view. This was Oaklands. And she was about to set foot within those walls—to tread where Bertram had trodden—to sit where he had sat—to gaze upon objects which were familiar to him in his lifetime! As the equipage Cashed along a nobla sweep of carriage-way through a vast and superbly wooded park, she thought to herself that every tree which reared its stately head there, had been knewn to Bertram —that she was now passing amongst scenes where he also had passed—she was breathing as it were the very air which ho had breathed. It was sufficient to resuscitate all the auguish of her affliction for his loss: it was enough to over- power her with irresistible emotions! But her soul was nerved with a perterhuman fortitude ; and however much sho might have felt in- ternally her pale countenance betrayed nothing of all this. The equipage dashed up to tho front of the splendid inansinn ; and troops of domestics camo forth from the hall to welcome their ducal master and his lovely bride. She ascended to a chamber to change her dress; and perhaps if she had been alone, she might have given way to the pent-up feelings that were agitating in hor soul. But she was attended by two maids; and she dared not betray any inordinate emotion in their presence, Some days passed, during which nothing par- ticular occurred that requires mention. In the mean while the Duchess had inspected all the apart- ments of the immense mansion; and though, by the sumptuous elegance of the fashionable dwell- ings she hadseen in London, she was prepared for all the evidences of boundless wealth in her new home,—yet its splendour far eclipsed all her fore- shadowings. One portion cooly remained unvi- sited; and this was the pictnre-gallery, which was under repair at the time of her arrival. Those repairs were finished; and one morning the Duke proposed that she should inspect the place, which contained, as he stated, not only some paintings by eminent masters, but likewise.the portraita of many of his oldest ancestors, as weil as of his re- latives who were more recently deceased. Thither they repaired. The paintings by the great mas- ters ocourred firat in the gallery ; and then came the’ portraits. Those of the Duke's elder ancestors engendered no particular sentiment beyond mere interest and curiosity: but when Eliza reached those of the relatives who were but recently de- ceased, strange thoughts and feelings began to take birth in her mind,—thoughts that seemed to be expanding into memories—feelings that ap- peared to connect the present with the past: and as She gazed With a growing wonderment, and even with consternation, the bewildering fancy which was at first dim, vague, and shapeless, strengthened into a conviction that there was in these portraits pervasive family similituda from which a never-to-be-forgotten image was neither estrauged nor disconnected. But the last portrait of all whioh hung in the array of successive family delineations———Eliza almost shrieked ‘out as her eyea riveted their looks upon it! It represented a tiuch older man than Bertram: but the rasem- bianos hetween them was 40 striking, it seenied as een mees ets? Ge ete SATA SS THE MYSTERIBG OF THE COURT. if the original could have been none other than Bertram’s father. ; Strange suspicions and wild fancies awept through hliza’s mind; but her agitation was con- centrated within. The very tremor which thrilled through her was one of the soul rather than of the body: outwardly she was calm aud serene— or at least the Duke observed nothing strange nor unusual on the part of his wife. For a mo- ment she averted her eyes from the portrait She thought—she hoped, that what she fancied might be a delusion produced by the circumstances of one image being ever uppermost tn her mind, and that therefore perhaps in her morbid imaginings she beheld that image to a certain degree reflected in the canvass befure her. But as «gain she glanced along the array of the last half-dozen scions of her husband's family, or rather their re- presentations there,—back to her mind came the conviction that it was no creation of the fancy, but that the pervasive resemblance was there,— commencing feebly with the scion most ramote, strengthening visibly with cach of those that fol- lowed, until settling into that unmistakable simi- litude of a patornal prototype. Therefore, again were her eyes riveted upon this last; and all her acttest memories were painfully revived—momo- ries of the lost—the dead—fthe ever loved! “That,” said the Duke, who still perceived no- thing strange on the part of his wife, but merely attributed to a natural curiosity and interest the intentness with which her survey was fixed upon the last portrait of all those belonging to the family into which she had so recently entered,— “that one represents my younger brother, the lato Lord Clandvun, who died a little more than a year back, It was most unfortunate!—just after he had been raised to the Peerage, at the same time that my Marquisate was raised to a Duke- dom!” “ And the title of your Marquisate, my lord ?” said Eliza, in a tone of inquiry; and though she stood still ngs a marble statue, ineffable feelings were agitating within. “Tho title to which I succeeded by the death of an old uncle a Jittle more than two years back,” replied her husband, ‘‘was that of Viviandale. Shortly afterwards it was elevated to the Duke- dom of Marchmont. ‘That same death rendered my younger brother Lord Vivian—but a lord only by courtesy; and he was raised to the Peerage by the style and title of Baron Clandon.” “ And previously to that death which first.of all made him a lord by courtesy,” said the Duchess, “I presume he was simply the Hon. Mr. Vivian? Forgive my ignorance upon these subjects And she stopped short. Not another word could she utter: more powerful sti.1—indeed al- most overwhelming, were the feellogs that agi- tated in her soul. “T am charmed, dearest, that you thus question me,” responded the uxorious Duke; “and I am delighted to answer your questions. Yes—my younger brother was merely the Hon. Mr, Vivian until about two years back. But, as I was ex- plaining to you juat now, it isa little more than a year since he died suddenly. Ah, Eliza! there were cruel circumstances connectedgvith his death. In a word, he received a very painful shock. 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