Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 45: what you’re looking at

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

32 JOSEPH WILMOT; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A MAN-SERVANT. remained in it, one of the surgeons promptly de- tected the contents to have been a mixture of arsenic and laudanum. Emetics were forced down the would-be suicide’s throat: they quickly ope- rated—and he was conveyed to a chamber. It is more easy to conceive than to describe the excitement which prevailed throughout the house- hold, when the intelligence of this new crime on the Duke’s part was spread like wildfire. The medical men soon pronounced however that the deed would not be followed with fatal consequences: but they recommended that the Duke should not be removed to prison until the evening. And not alone on account of his attempted suicide was this delay deemed expedient—but likewise because of the crowd which was gathered in the street, and against which the porter had to bar the great gates of the mansion. For the rumour of the tragedy had spread abroad since the earliest hour; and it was now past nine o’clock on this memorable morning. The multitudes had therefore assembled ; and when it was known how frightful was the death of the Duchess—how her person was covered with wounds, and how her skull had been beaten in—the bitterest execrations were levelled against the murderer. But now that at length it transpired that this murderer was none other than her own husband, the fury of the crowd could scarcely be restrained ; and I verily belieye that if time had not been afforded for the mitigation of that strong feeling—and if the Duke had been at once con- veyed away to prison—the enraged populace would have torn him to pieces. After that distressing scene with the Duke, I retired to my own chamber, to compose my feel- ings, if possible, in solitude. When I reflected upon the various incidents of this stupendous tragedy, I was all the more amazed, horrified, and shocked thereat. I could come to no other con- clusion than that the Duke had planned the crime some hours before he executed it—and that he had endeavoured to arrange his proceedings in such a way as should best avert suspicion from himself. That pretended journey—that long letter which he had penned to his wife—the way in which he had spoken to me, with an appearance of so much friendly candour—the orders be had issued, with so much seeming precaution, through the medium of his principal valet,—all these were part and parcel of a scheme concocted with a devilish in- genuity. Doubtless he had expected to be enabled to despatch his intended victim at once,—in which case he would most probably have done something to give the apartments an air of a forcible entrance having been effected; and it might be that he would have completely succeeded in averting sus- picion from himself—for even the quarrels with ‘his wife would never of themselves alone have been sufficient to hurl the charge of murder against his head. The resistance however which he had ex- perienced at the hands of the unhappy Duchess, had discomfited all his hopes, and turned the train of circumstances into a new channel. His subse- quent actions showed how fearfully he must have been bewildered,—the pistol left on the carpet— the broken blade in the body—and he himself carrying away the handle after he had forced the desk, as if in the frightful confusion of his thoughts and the mad agitation of his brain he had totally lost sight of the necessity of leaving the handle ere ee rr CO there likewise,—and as if he had also overlooked the fact that his kerchief remained there too to strengthen the tale against him! But it was evident that his chief anxiety, after dealing those murderous stabs and blows, was to possess himself of the manuscript narrative so closely regarding his honour—and that this one idea being upper- most in his mind, he had rushed back to his own room to commit those papers to the flames. As for the poison, I now recollected the circum- stance of finding the Duke busy with a couple of phials when I had entered his apartment on the previous evening, and when he so quickly con- cealed those phials from my view. The wretched man! he was then preparing for any casualty that might arise: he was securing for himself the means of suicide in case aught should transpire to taint him with suspicion! And, Oh! what a night must he have passed!—long hours perhaps of mingled hesitation and anguish—and then a fero- cious resolve triumphing over ‘his ‘better feelings ! Yes—there must have been much hesitation on ' his part: or! else wherefore postpose the crime until past five in the morning? wherefore not have accomplished it in the midst of that dark- ness which was most congenial to such tremendous turpitude P And now I must proceed to observe that there were other evidences of the Duke’s crime, in addi- tion to those already described to the reader, and which in themselves were damnatory enough. The wretched man, as [ have said, was enveloped in a dressing-gown until the moment when he was borne to a chamber after having made his unsuc- cessful attempt at suicide; and on the dressing- gown being taken off, his shirt was found stained with blood, as well as rent in several places. The hair discovered in the spasmodic grasp of the un- happy lady’s hands, corresponded precisely with his own: there were blood-stains upon the doors of his own suite of apartments; and besides the tinged water in the basin in his bed-chamber, a towel was found thrust between the mattresses and likewise bearing the sanguineous stains. The crowd continued in the street throughout the day; and at a late hour in the evening, a hackney-coach was got round into the Champs Elysées, which the garden of the mansion ad- joined. A picket of gendarmes was in the close vicinage of where the vehicle stopped, in order to resist any infuriate demonstration on behalf of the populace, should it be suspected that the culprit was to be removed in that direction. The idea that such a stratagem would be adopted, seemed however not to have occurred to the multitudes: for they remained in the street. Thus was it that between nine and ten o'clock, the wretched mur- derer, in a half senseless condition, was carried out to the hackney-coach; and he who was ac- customed to visit in his own sumptuous carriage the palaces of his wealthy compeers, was con- ducted in a miserable lumbering public hackney to a gaol! Immediately after the commissary of police had decided upon committing the Duke de Paulin to prison, he likewise thought it oe TA for the ends of justice to order the arrest of Mademoiselle Ligny. Fromthe suspicious circumstances con- necting her name ‘with that of the Duke, the magistrate no doubt conveived it to be quite GO NOOKS (S@)