The Mysteries of the Court of London, Vol. 7 — page 379: what you’re looking at

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

Dieters eee EO ea Glin HPO Ep 368 Pree — — sa ~ao enabled to ascertain the ciroumstances in which he | escaped from the geol. He was a verttable ont- THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. A Ee RY Rane, pera ee is placed—and the readers will discover, if they have not already suspected, who he is. * Well, 1’m blest if ever a reapectable gene]man cast in ewery sense aud meaning of the term— pepniless, houseless, fuodiess, and a wanderer. Yet he drew nearer to the village with the hope found his-self in such a precious mess as] am in now —nothink but the glory of having escaped out of the atone jug and knocked the turnkey on , out-house where he could stretch his wearied limbs the head, to cheer me up a bit. Here four ‘for a tew hours ere pursuing his journey again. days has gone since that there brilhant expluit on | Tae path which he was threading through the my pert; and I’ve tramped « matter of a hundred ; fields, brought bim to the gate of the churchyard ; mile, sneaking along like a half-starved dog — | and as he sate to rest himself there for a few afeard every moment that so:no fellor will tap me | tauates, he fancied that he beheld « light glim- on the shoulder, eaying, ‘Now, then, Burney, | mering through @ small window, or loop-hole, you're wanted !'~—Bu* arter al), it's better to be | at the very bottom of the wall of the charch. The free to wander through these here ficlds, oven | Burker was little prone to superstitious fears ; and though I must prosently stretch myself under a/ his curiusity was thorefure excited. He entered hedges or creep iuto a barn, with the chance of | the cburchyard—he advanced towards the little that something might transpire to relieve his necessities—or else to afford him a barn, shed, or being took up as a wagrant and sent tu the mill as a rogue and waggabone,~than to atop in Liverpool gaol with the certaynty of dancing upon nothink, Well, this ia @ cunsolation: but I aouldn’t miad having summut more consoling in the shape of a good hut supper and a jorum of grog. Four whole days aud nighte—hving on charity—just what I could pick up at lonely cut- tages—~and then only getting summut to eat cos why my looke isn’t the pleasinteat in the world — and when women is by theirsclves, and thoir hus- bands is out, they don’t like sugh a faco as mine to be poked in apou them. Well, arter all, a ugly face has its adwantages. for whon a chap is in dis- tress, he gets in thin way mere than would be gived bim if his looks was ’ansome, meek, and acwiable. But 1 never see such a part of the eountry as this here is!) Four whole days without meeting a single traveller that was worth stop- ping, except that jully stout farmer which bad his pistols and wade me run for my life. It's a black- guard shame that the pouple in these parts don’t travel as other Christians dues, with their gold ghains and their purace—or else that if they do, they carrics pistols.” Hero, to relieve his injured feelings, as he thus thought with ineffuble disgust over bis suppused | wrongs, Mr. Barnes the Burker geve a terniic | Avurish with his huge bludgeon, as if be was aim- ing a deapérate blow at the people of Lancashire and Wostmoreland who would not cume forth to _ be’ plundered. As he was pursuing his way, he eame within sight of the village-—the avalle of eome of the cottages gleaming white amidst the embowering trees. But there was no satisfaction nor cheering hope in the prospect fur him. With- . out a penny in his pockot—conscious of bis four! bidding luoks—dressed in sordid apparel, bho was gotvinsane enough to suppose that the door of any inn or private dwelling in that village would be d to afford him a welcome reception. And t too, he felt assured that a hue and cry had been raised the moment his Becape was discovered that advertisements had been sent to all the incial newspapers -that handbills hed moet ikely been circulated —and that therefore his posi- tion, was anything but a safe and secure one. The reader cagnat to have understood that, on peing captured in London in the manner described in an oarlier , be had as a matter’ of course boen transferred te that town which was the essence of the murder fer which he would have to stand | bie trial along with Mre. Webber, ad be not x lenses window whence, as bo had fancied, the light was really glimmering. This window was more than half way below the actual level of the churchyard; but the earth had been cut away in wu sloping manner towards it, su av to adunit the air, if not the light of day, into the place to which it be- Jonged. Tur Burker, passing amongst the tomb- st. nes, and trampling recklessly upon the graves, advanced nearer towards the littl window— atooped down -and peeped in. There was an iron grating, but no glass ty the winduw—if a window it could therefore be thue denominated; att the Burker could obtain a full view of the interior of the vault—for a vault 1t was. A short but massive pilar ruse in the centre, supporting the arched oeiling, which wis the Moor of the church: several coffius were there—an immense lantern hung to an irvn nail fixed in tLe wall -and an old man ina very plain garb was seated on a block -, atone at the foot of the pillar. On the ground were several im, lements such as might have been ased in raising the stone which covered the vault, and which therefure belonged to the pavement of the church. The glare of the lantern, which com- pletely fillod the vault, prevented Jonathan Car- uabio—fur he the vld man was—from observing that the argentine beams of the night's splendour were pow intercepted at the loophole by the form of an ubserver. He sate upon that stone, gasing slowly around on the coffins which were ranged againet the sides of the vault ; and though merely inusing with himeelf, be nevertheless eaid loud enough to be overheard by the Burker, “ Woll, there's room sufficient to be sure: but then the question ie, which 1s its most appropriate place ?” The ovfius upon which the old man thus slowly bent bis gase, exhibited the proofs that they had been at very different periods euonsignes to that last resting-place of the shruuded dead whom they enclosed. There were coffins that were so dilapi- dated aod broken it seemed as if the elightest touch would send them crumbling inta,dust— others which were sumewha: better preserved— others again which evdently belonged to a still more recent period—and two or three which seemed as if it were only withio the last few years that they had takes their places in the midat of that family receptacle. “ Well, it ia strange,” continued the old maa in his audible musings, “that I can’t at once hit upon | the place where this new-comer ahall be deposited to-morrow. I suppose my intellect is not as clear as it used to be; and I know that it takes we (wise 4 ELOOO© ae enero. Seow EE es ow eae <ee Da aie ad Petes (Gey 2 Oe EE a oe EE Ee oO - a = SS