The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 285: what you’re looking at

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

274 THE MYSTERIES. . all the colour flying from ‘her cheeks, and her limbs tottering back once more. “ But what means this | imposture—this cheat?” she exclaimed, suddenly / nerved with the courage of desperation: and her ~- ~ - _@me- eyes flashed fire and her countenance grew flushed again. “ Banish all excitement, beautifal lady,” said the | Pfince, in a tone of joyous confidence: “for we may perhaps have some few matters to discuss— ' and I should recommend you to enter upon the argument with coolness and composure.” While the Prince was yet speaking, the terrible , thought flashed to the brain of the Countess that 1 inasmuch as he had come thither as Ramsey's sub- | stitute, he was doubtless aware of everything which had taken place between herself and the resuscitated | criminal ;—and recoiling from the hideous idea that ; her shame and infamy were thus knowe to a man who was so thoroughly heartless and so remorse- lessly cruel, she sank down as if annihilated upon | the sofa that happened to be near. Again did the rich carnation fly from her cheeks : | and with a look of despair fixed upon his Royal Highness, she appeared to regard him as the arbiter of her destinies. . “Listen to me, Lady Desborough,” said the Prinoe, crossing his arms over his breast as he stood before her drawn up to his full height: “you are at length in my power—and you feel it! Circam- stances have ordained that my vengeance and my passion shall be consummated atthe same time. I have longed to humble you—and with a single word can I do it: I have longed to possess you—and in afew minutes you will surrender yourself to my arms !” “Never—never! exclaimed the Countess, ac- tuated by s sudden frenzy: and she bounded to- wards the place where she had concealed the mur- derous weapons. But the Prinoe, imagining that she was about to seek the door in order to effect her escape, caught her round the waist;.-and, as he thus drew her somewhat suddenly and violently back, she pulled out the drawer the handle of which she had just grasped. The pistol and the dagger were thus revealed to the eyes of the Prince, who absolutely hurled the Countess from him while he snatched up the weapons. The unhappy lady was thrown forcibly upon the sofa; and finding herself baffled, defeated, overwhelmed at every point, she covered her face with her hands and burst into a flood of tears. At the same moment the Prince snapped the dagver in twain and dashed the contents of a water-decanter over the priming of the pistol. “ Now you are utterly and irredeemably in my power,” he said, with a tone and look of savage triumph. “I said ere now that I could humble you with a word—and that word shall bespoken without nesitation and without remorse. Yes, proud and haughty lady—I salute thee as the paramour of the man who was hanged——” A shriek that was half stifled by a convulsive sob, burst from theglips of the wretched Eleanor as she clasped her hands together, while the whole elastic symmetry of her elegant form writhed with the spasmodic thrill of horror that shot through it. “ Now, you have forced me thus to proclaim the aumiliating fact,” continned the Prince, — “you, who would have murdered me if I had left you the chance,” he cried, flinging a rapid look upon the broken poniard and the useless pistol. “But you need not affect the prude towards me, after having revelled in the embraces of a man whose neck bears the mark of the accursed halter! Oh! you may groan in spirit, proud lady: but it delights me thus to humble thee—yes, thee who hast proved so cruel and so disdainful towards myself! But all thy proceedings are well known to me, Lady Desborough —and I have farther evidence, if you wish it to be proclaimed, to show that your virtue is not the most stubborn in the w For the resuscitated criminal must have been speedily forgotten by the frail fair one who some few weeks after that amour was seen gallanting witlethe pretty and baby-faced Lord Florime! disguised in a female garb f” “On my honour—on my oath, I am innocent in that respect |” cried the Countess, springing to her feet and contemplating the heir-apparent with mingled terror and anger. “Oh! surely, surely the one fault of my life is a sufficient re yes, and a stigma too—without this second accu- sation that is so utterly unfounded?” “ What matters it, lady, on how many lovers you bestowed your favours,” demanded the Prinoe, tronisally, “ whon a felon can boast of having been the object of thy virgin affections? For he has told me all—yes, everything—thy hus- band's tremendous secret——” “The miscreant Ramsey between her eet teeth, while an expression of diabolical hatred swept like a thunder-cloud over her grandly beautiful countenance : then, ina rapid and fearfully excited tone, she saldaloud, “ Prince of Wales, listen to me for one moment-—and let us thoroughly understand our relative positions! You are acquainted with all the secrets of my life —and you can blast my reputation and my hap- piness with a single word. I am in your power — know it—I feel it. But are you the leas in mine ?—and can I breathe no word that will also blast your reputation and your happiness? Re- member the scene at Carlton House—on the me- morable night of the ball! Remember, I say, how. Mrs. Fitzherbert suddeuly appeared in the room to which I had been inveigied, and how she pro- claimed herself your wife! But there is now another Princess of Wales at Carlton House ;—and the secret that his Koyal Highness the heir-ap- parent to the British throne is a perjured bigamist can be as easily thundered forth to the public, as wretched, wretched narrative of my infamy and disgrace! Pause, then—reflect—and beware how you proclaim a war to the death against me—a war that shall only terminate in the rain of us both !” The Prinoe had listened attentively—with the cold sardonism of a man who cares not for the menaces which are levelied against him ;—and the Countess of Desborough beheld with an increasing terror the total failure of the course which she was adopting. She read upon his countenance the contempt that he experienced for her words: she saw in his looks the fiendish satisfaction of a cer- tain triumph. “But the proofs of my marriage with Mrs. Fitz- herbert ?” he exclaimed: “those proofs, I say— where are they? Destroyed—annihilated! The papers are barnt—and no one will credit the mad assertions of interested or revengeful women! | ElOOO® SS