The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

a NN Ee theleton ; and darkness—stupendous darkness—fell upon the scene. But this darkness was onty a portion'of thé Prince's: vision : for the wax-lights, the lamp, und the ‘fire still barnt in the apartment. ‘Therefore ‘was it in hs dream that he was entombed in #0 dense and pitchy a blackness : and while he fancied that his eyes were wide open and looking as it were into this deep un- fathomable gicom, vivid lightnings appeared to gleam at short intervals across the palpable darkness. And then an awful voice—sonorous as if it were the rolling of a huge metal ball‘on an elastic bridge of brass, and solemn as if it came from a being whose.abode was on the other side of the tomb— spoke in the foligwing msznner :— *© Prince! has the world no warings for thee and has hell no terrors, that thou livest in defiance alike of God and Man? From him to whom much is given, much is expected: but although earth bath no example of a being on whone fread ‘such benefits are heaped as on thine, still hast thou paid ort the amallest mite into the treasury of the future. ‘ The white page allotted tothee in the book of the Reeard- ing Angel is a biank: whereas thy black page is covered with entries written in the hues of blood. A moral scourge art thou upon the earth; and already are thy crimes so great that if not another misdeed were added, stil] hast thou done enough to render thy name accursed until the end of time! The present gene- | ration, blinded by the dazsling rays of Royaity, be- holds not all the hideous blackness of thy character: bat when, in the course of a few short years, a more comprehensive liberalism shall have taught the nation to contemplate even its Kings without prejadice, thou wilt be regarded as one of the blackest monsters of iniquity that ever disgraced the human species. And then a man will arise, bold enough to tear away the glossy veil which hides the deformities of the mighty by birth and the exalted in rank; and with an iron pen will he delineate all the evil traits of thy character, and mercilessly though truthfully depict all the mis- deeds of thy life. For how manifold are thy enor- mities—and how poor the compensation offered by any opposite qualities! Selfish egotist that thou art, if thine eyes fall upon a charming flower blooming in its virgin innocence, ‘tis but to blight it with thy sustful looks: if thou beholdest the sunny smiles of maiden artlessness, the hot breath of thine unholy passion comes upon her like a pestilence, and thy kisses leave pollution upon her lips as the snail voids its slime upon the leaf of the rose! Oh! for the hearts which thou hast broken—Oh! for the fervid affections which thou hast crushed for ever! The joy of thy cooquests remains impressed upon thy mind while the victim moulders in that deep silent tomb from whence there is no return. Thon tri- amphest in pleasures which are purchased by tears —lamentatione—and premature deaths! Has some poor widow a lovely danghter whom she cherishes as a pet-lamb, the lone woman's comfort must never- theless be torn away from her to minister to the de- lights of the Prince of Walea! Has some father an only child—a blooming girl reminding him of the much-loved wife whont he has lost—this fair being, the old man’s prop and support, must be snatched from his arms to suit the lascivious fantasies of the Prince of Wales! Oh! that such things should be, and scarcely excite a sentiment of remorse in the breast of him who causéth that wiie-spread inivery ! Thou may’st pursues thine atrocious career in this fife—thou may’st go through nastre’s.ganien plusk~ ing the fxirest flowers, ‘revelling ia their perfame for a moment, and then toesing then acide to wither prematurely—and thou may’st -contmue to feast thine-ears with the lamentations of rained giris.as if *twere the most delicious music ;—bat, as truly as there is a God ‘above—a Ged who avenges as well as rewards—a God who is just as well as mercifal,--so surely shall condign punishment await thee, O Prince, in the world to eome I” ‘Sach was the terrible address which rulled sonorously upen the ears of the heir-apparent to ehe throne,-as he lay locked in profound slamber: and then, as the unknown voice died away like de- parting thunder, a form blacker than the darkness appeared to stand out from the dense cloud cur- rounding the bed. And the Prince fancied that he ‘was gazing steadfastly upon the appalling pheno- menon, ané that the sable shape expanded into colvssal proportions, until it became a mighty giant of hideous mien and terrible aspect. Then again the voice relied on the ‘ears of the Prince of Wales, while the portestous pkentom stretched out its ebon arm with menacing gesticula- tion. “ As yet thon hast traced thy path amidst the roses and fairest flowers of the earth,” spoke the oolwesal being; “and thou hast wooed and courted pleasure in every shape. All that is loveliest of female :benuty —all that is most luxurions of banguetting «nd festivity—all that is most samptuous.and splendid, most magnificent and gorgeous, in palaces and equipages,—ali, all hast thea made thine own. The four comers of the earth have been ransacked to ‘bring together the means and materiale for thy en- jeyments: wert thon a deity, thy pomp and thy state could not be exceeded. ‘The millions toil in starvation to maintain thee in juxary;.and it would seem as if those millions were created enly to serve thee as slaves! Thine egotism has ranged over the whole world to find food for its aliment —and it temains insatiate stil}! Thy whole life ia pleasure— thy whole existence luxury and iove. . Instead. of there being a utorrow, and a morrew, and a morrow ‘for thee—each having new duties and @ringing with it new cares—it seems as if thine ‘enure existence were a mere contmuous dream of soft indelence and voluptuous enjoyment. Such is chy -eareer upon earth: but what will be thy doom hereafter? Oh! hideous and appalling coutrast—a contrast -beyond the conjecture of even the wildest and most hor- tified imagining. Bat theu hast: feasted almost to satiety upon earthly pleasuses—thou east bathed to ‘the very hair of thime head in the world's fownt of bliss! ‘Now, then, behold the doom. witch awaits thee after death !” Thus speaking, the -coluseal phantom encircled the Prince with his -huge ‘sable -arm; and his ‘Royal ‘Highwess: shricked 'piercingly in the midst of his slumber—for :¢-sesmed.as if the:oold and slimy-contact of a tsemendeus enake were coming upo: him. -And ‘he arithed and straggied with horrible convulsions in the imagmary:guasp of the gable being: and thea:it appessed-ss if he were sud- denly torn away from his-eeuch end:caried-with ap- palling rapidity threugh am-atmesphere as black: as pitch and as denew-as if it were-one vast: mass:of seot. ‘The wumbuess of-an avfal constenation.now -fell upen “hin ; hie tongue was guralyecd, eo. that: he GOH GOO SS