The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 345: what you’re looking at

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

e -@ man—usually se. coli-bloeded,.sw selfis, and so: ¢alious,-—this: burdened veluptuary. who had erarcely experienced a pang when he‘allowed his rnyrenidon to drive Mrs. Fitzherbert from: his palatial: mansion, —thia profligate, whose whole life was one monstrous epotiem, felt his soul touched and his heart subdued. i by the piteous spectacle of that fair young creature's excruciating woe. Yea—he stramed her to his breast: and fora few minutes she. abamdoned herself so entirely: to: kim: that those caresses which he at first lavished apon ber threught. tive. tenderest compassion, ‘to a quire the fervour of other and less chastened feelings But, the instant that this fact burst upen. ber com- prehension, Octavia started from his arme-—tore. heraelf from his embrace,—and, while her couste- aance became scarlet, her bosom palpitated, and her whole manner evinced a profound, angry agitation, she exclaimed, “ My heart is breaking, George—but kt me die cherishing the thought that you have loved me not with a-dishonouring passion, altheugh dishonomr has been my portion” And, retreating a few paces from the chair which jhe had left, Octavia sank upon another seat. Her bonnet had fallen off in. the half- «lich bad. taken place when she thus wrested herself from the arma of the Prinee; and that splendid flood. et auburn hair which might have:formed the glory of a princess adored and worshipped as Tasse's Leo- nora, rolled in heavy and shining masses over her shoulders. The sunbeams, penetrating between the tich curtains:that shaded the windows, appeared to mingle with those luxuriant tresses, imparting. to them se fine a gloss and so golden a magnificence tuat the head ef the fair being seemed radiant as that ofanangel! Alas! alas! though the glory still cir- cied the brow, yet was the angel fallen; and. thomgh heaven’s own blessed light still shone around the head,. yet had the heart changed into.the dross ofearth. The serpent had loeked in upon the Eden of her heart— had feand ite flowers rich in perfume and bright in hue—and had changed that fair paradise into deso- lation. The tempter had taught her to coniempliate Love as the rose of the soul: she had pincked it from its etem—she had pressed it to her bosom— oC nnn Mom Del Eeroed Comp into ber eart ! And now, as the Prince gased upos her—while she arranged that flood: of glorious bear which swept over her shoulders—he felt that. he could net lose. a mistress eo transcendently bematiful: nay—he even felt that he loved her more than he had ever yet loved a woman in all his life. “ Qctavina—sweet Octavia,” he said, after a. long panse--and, as he spoke, he gradually advanced close up to her,—* talk not of a breaking heart, I im- plore you! There are two in this room ; and think you thet there is only one heart which is afflicted? By heavens, you do me an injustice |” he-exclaimed, im an impassioned tone, as he seized Octavia’s right hand and clasped it forcibly. “Oh! your suffermgs, George, are light and tolerable indeed when compared with mine,” said tne unhappy girl, with an expression of hopeless misery in ber deep blue eyes and on her exquisitely cliselled lip. “ When affliction falls upon the heads of two persons who love tenderly, ’us the fate of the weaker to bear the heavier load; and if the sacrifice of a braken heart be demanded, ’tis poor woman's the wretchednese.as well as all. the dishonear mast be bomme by her! Blasted with the lightnings of her passion, che is stricken isto'an early grave! Oh! these aretruths to which Man esunot. close his eyes,” | exclaimed Octavim,.with an agonised intonation that betrayed all the poignancy of her anguish: “and yet dees he persecute Woman with his unlawful love! Why did you make me your victim %” she demanded, with an abrupiness that was wild and ' almest fierce: “wherefore did you pour mto my | soul the poison of your 09 own. passion ? You found : me gay, and happy, and ted and © innecent—an: untutored creature seeking’ net the | tersibie experienceof love: and what have you made me?—to what have you redueed me? Whereis the . hope of my. youth? Shivered, like glass, into a thousand pieces. that now reflect, whichever way I | tars, the hideous image of despair! Restore me to that pedestal of imecence whence you have dragged me down-—give me back mme honour! © You:are a Prince—the son of a King—one day to be a King yoursolfi—and you have power to do more than ordinary mortals:.eles is your ranka meckery © _ | our might adelusion! Prove yourself as great | as the world believes you to be,” exclaimed the . wretched gitl, starting from. her seat—half-maddened , by the excitement of her over-wrought. feelings : “release me' from the spells wherewith you have en- | chanted me—-raise the terrible incantation that rests - upon me ———” “ Octavia—Octavia!” cried the Prince, in a tone which. appeared to have caught the. infeetion of her wildnese—-for the fear that her senses were abandon- ing herhad driven him almost to despair: “ [ im- plore you—by. everything sacred, I conjure you to tranquillise yourself !”’ “Qh! ’tis.s0 easy for you. to preach tranguillity,” she exclaimed, bitterly,—*“ you who suffer so lightly ! But the time may come, however,’’ she added, with ° a strange abrupwess and an explessien of counte- , manoe that seriously alarmed the Prince,—“ the time . may come when remorse shall toneh your soul— when the worm of compunetion shall geaw your heart;—and then, although your sovereign rank . may gild your agonies, yet shall the memory of the poer.girl whose love you won and whose heart you broke, return again and again to torture yea whe stretehed upon a restless couch you court alumber | in vain, and when.no eye sees you save His. from whose presence no man oan fly !’’ “Octavial. you are killmg yourself with excite- ment,” cried the Prince: “aod you are driving ms to desperation! What means thie change ef - humour?—why reproach me ness’ Searcely ten | minutes have elapsed since you were.almost happy in the conviction that my heart is thine—indiseolubly thine———"”’ . ; ““No—no—-I was not happy!” she exclaimed, | struggling to release her hands from the grasp in which her royal lover again. held them. “Aad if . I were, it was crimigal on nty part to beso! For. new ideas spring up every moment M my mind— new intuitions give an impulse to wy thoaghts The walls of this room are dissolving into thio . air,” she continued, stretching out her arms wildly and glaring with terrible excitemant around: “ the world without becomes revealed to me—the whole — earth develops itself to my experience—thu haman heart is opened to my ion——” Ce 2rarwe <= 6: em! = 7 @-me, = a &@ oo p98 a od jinvanaile doem to become the victim rxes—all| “Merciful God—she is raving!” cried the Prince, | COMica@Oo (C SS COLUM