The Mysteries of the Court of London, Vol. 7 — page 256: what you’re looking at

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

-_ — ee a eee eee Oe ee eee ee ee. =e oes ow —_—-s= =~ e ee ee ee ee ee ae — ~~— a F ~ 2 A Ce ee — ee ee ee ee ee eee ce eee THE MYSTERIES ewe We Gee hE tarag = —42—2.2 ah ae nniinnanemenementtimnemmomma mae ' ¢hat circumstances had indaced Sir William Stanley éo revisit India some three years previous to the date of which we are now writing, and that he had only returned to England about a twelve- month back. It was the first week in Juna—and in a chamber communicating with the female infirmary of the Liverpool gaol, Lettica Rodney eat. How changed was her appearance from that glory and bloom of beauty which had invested her ere she found her- self charged with the tremendous crime of marder! But terrible are the ravages which those joint scourges—care and illness—are enabled to affect upon the human form; and the most blighting in- fluence of the former as well as tha fiercest rage of the latter had wreaked themselves upon the gnfor- tunate Lettice Rodney. Hor shape, once so voluptuous in its superb proportions, had become emaciated: her cheeks, once so plump and with the roseate bloom of health upon them, had grown sunken and deadly pale; her eyes, deep in their cavernous orbits, had lost their fire; and the ashy lips received an added ghaatliness from the fine white teeth. And her look too—OQh, how pro- fuundly sad it was! That countenance which bad been wont to beam with sunny smiles, or to glow with the flush of sensuous passion, now seamed to be the tombatone of a perished heart, and on which was traced the epitaph of a happiness that was gone, never to come back! It was about noon when she was thus seated in her chamber on the occasion that we now propose specially to direct the reader’s attention thither. She was clad in the very plainest dress that she had brought with her from London at the time of | hor ill-fated journey: there was nothing coquettish | about her now—no studied air of seductiveness in | her toilet any more than there was in her looks. Sie scerncd an altered creature,—but one of those beings whom it is necessary for the hand of Provi- dence to drag, for its own wise purposes, through the most terrible ordeale, and whose hearts must pass through fiery furnaces in order that they may table at which she sat; and they were books which OF THE COURT. spe aiia hope that her innocence would yet bo made ap- parent; and entertaining this hope, her present contrition wad all the more prataeworthy: for it would indeed have bean oomparutivels little worth if merely the result of that terrorisin which be- longs to the anticipation of an iaevitably ignoe minious fate. But whence arose that hope? & fow words will explain. When Lettice Rodney Was beginning to recover from hor dangerous ilnese—-when she awoke from that long pend of mingled delirium and torpor, to a conscivuanoss of her dread position—she was visited by Me. Redcliffe. This gentleman questioned her minutely as to: the whole incidents of the tragedy at Pol. lard’s houses: he likewise gave her certain in- structions; and bidding her put faith in Provi- dence, he declared that all that man could go ehould be done to make her innocence apparent, if innocent she really were. Thon, tov, did he inform her that he waa the individual whom she had encountered on that memorable night by the side of the pond where he had extorted from hur a full confeesion of hor misdeeds towards tho Duchess of Marohmont; and he likewise gave her to unter. stand that when he visited Madame Angelique's den of infamy, it was in roality from no sensuous inclinations, but because be had special objects to aerve. Nor less did he unfold to her that it was through hig interposition the penitent Hvelcen O’Brien was restored to her home and had re- ceived the parental forgiveness. From that visit on the part of Mr. Redoliffe was it that Lettice entertained the hope of ber innocence being yet proclaimed to tho world. And now we return to the special occasion on which we have been spesking of her as being seated in her prison-chamber, and devoting her attention to the volumes which the chaplain and the governor had furnished. Preseptiv the dour oponed; and as Lettice slowly turned hor mourn. ful look thither, expecting that it was merely the matron of the infirmary, ahe beheld Mr. Redelilfe. The door closed behind him; and taking a seat on the opposite side of the table, he oade Lottice resume her own, from which she had risen through be chastened. Books were before her upon the | she read now —but which only a few months back, ; respect towarcs the kind friond whom heaven had when in the luxurious saloons at Madame Ange- ' sent -her. He made inquiries concerning her lique’s house of gilded infamy, she would havo! health: b:: questioned her as to her, present frame tossed away from her with the light laugh of} of mind; and he found that the soul was‘in a scorn. | better,condition than the body. Yes—and bitterly, bitterly did Lettice Rodney “Even if my innocence be made apparent, Mr. repent of her misdeeds. She thought of the | Redcliffe,” said the prisoner, in a voice of profuund Duchess of Marchmunt, to accomplish whose ruin* melancholy,—“and even if I go forth from this sho bad lent herself; and the conviction wal gaol into the great world again, I shall never strong in her mind that her own calamity was to‘ recover from the blow which has so cruelly amitien a certain extent a judgment upon her head for her , mo. But as for my ponitence—Oh, believe me tu wickedness thes. But she knew that she had | be sincere!—I beseech you to believe that I am many, many other sing to answer for :—for in- | truly contrite !” stance, her personation of Mrs. Rayner in order: “Six weeks have elapsed,” said Mr. Redcliffe, to rob the lawyer of bis moneys and then too the | “since I last boheld you. You had then only juat very object of the journey which she had under-} awakened, as it wero, from the unconsciousness of taken at the time—namely, to try and wean away | alternating fever and torpor; and your mind was Eveleen O’Brien from that parental home to which ' under influences but hittle paloulated to render it the refurmed young woman had gone back. For ! calm and collected. Do you remember all that you all these misdeeds, either accomplshed or medi-: tuld me then P” tated—and for the life of voluntary pollution and | “Evory syllable, Mr. Redcliffu!” answered Ivt- depravity which she had led—did Lettice Rod- | tice emphatically. mney belicve herself most righteously punished: “And ewery syllable was consistent with truth P”’ now. | said the philanthropist inquiringly. And yet she was not altugether without th:, “As l have a agul tu be saved!” rejoinad Js:- ima mine aie hy ene wens ee a ~~ ate Ebene -OF— =Pwhye SS Weer WK ey a_ ~~, Os ae eae SU of ote On n ea 3.86 = ee oe SO —_ a aap: COMIC OOO© (C i as qh*eoures Ae Wey meee ER el eee FS Pfparuii<o a napa ars ae enepany a pr a an en a Fa cs Sy AR ees af cmc a Ce ee eee Reg SPP ~~ es ee eee eee SS