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

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

' 4 THE MYSTER:IBS, 368 ‘ IT eannot think of appearing in the presence of the young maiden——that is to say, if she is pure, chaste, and innocent as she was when first I knew her.” * She is—ehe is — beyond all doubt!" exclaimed Meagies. “Then I will not see her,” responded Melmoth. “ Criminal—vile—polluted—degraded—and infamous _ as T am,” he continued in a tone of wildly increasing excitement, “I should only shock her delicate nature —outrage her beat feelings with my fearful confee- edons—" | “Good heavens! what has happened to you, Mel- moth ?—what is the matter with you?” demanded Meagies. “ Come—here is a tavern close by—we will enter it—we will engage a private room—and there ewe can talk at our ease.” ‘With all my heart,” replied Melmoth 9 CHAPTER CCXX. REVELATIONS OF THE MONSTER-MAN. Jron being seated together in a parlour at the tavern, ‘Tim Meagles was enabled to examine James Melmoth more attentively than during the hurried and excited discourse on the foot-way of the Edgeware Road. He ow observed that there was not only something strange and wild in Melmoth’s looks, but an expression positively sinister and ferocious: now the eyes had a fixed and savage glare like those of a tiger when ing on an enemy whom he longs to reach but can- not—and then those balls glittered with the vacil- lating, changeful, but still lurid light which showed a disordered mind and unsettled reason. The man’s countenance was pale, sallow, and care-worn—and the melancholy that was expressed in ,all the lower por- tion of his features contrasted strongly with, the flercer and darker passions that left their trace on his brow and lighted their fires in his eyes. As for his apparel, he was clad in a decent sujt of clothes; and his personal appearance so far indicated anything but penury or distress. “And now, Melmoth,” said Tim Meagles, ‘‘ when the waiter had placed a bottle of wine upon the table and had withdrawn,—* now tell me all that has happened to you since we parted of Woolwich nearly three months ago. That terrible and strange things have befallen you, I can divine too easily : your iooks, my poor friend, bespeak you an altered man.” “ Altered |—yee—terribly altered, Mr. Meagles!” ejaculated Melmoth, with a burning look and an iron emphasis, as he struck his clenched fist forcibly upon the table. “So altered, my dear sir,” he continued, fa an accent of satire and sardonism, now blending with the ferocity of his voice and making it more dreadful to hear,—‘“so altered, I say, that the man bas become a monster |” “What mean you?” demanded Tim, shuddering, he cnew not why—but with that same instinctive feeling which causes a tremor to creep cold and clammy over a man when he enters a room where he knows there is a huge snake, and even before he has yet set eyes upon it. “J mean,” returned Melmoth, “that this accursed state of society which titled rogues, pensioned rascals, high-bern demireps, and bioated hypocrites love to «pplaad as a consummate civilization, is nqthing more . | wr less than the cruellest and most savage barbarism ; __ nae ~-yot—darbari’u all the more eruel and all the more savage, becanse 6 commits ten thousand crimes in the name of humanity, and Christian love, and families into workhousese—and vaunts its humanity / —it dooms four-fifths of the population to misery, wretchedness, and crushing toil, and dares to talk of Christian love being made practical! — it fills the streets with prostitutes and mendicanta, and inculcates philanthropy !—it hangs, transports, or imprisons men who demand their rights ; and these it persecutes in the name of justice '—it enacts a hun- dred thousand laws to coerce the poor, and not one to compel the rich to do their duty—and this is mercy! Now can yoO wonder, Mr. Meagles, if a sensitive man should be goaded to desperation by such a system as this ?—can you wonder if an individual, who himself abounds in Christian love and compre- hends the true meaning of justice and mercy, should be driven to madness by the horrors which are per- petrated under the cover of our pretended civilization ? —can you be surprised if goading tyranny and grind- ing persecution should pervert all feelings—change all instincts—and turn man’s very nature inside oyt? It would be wondrous indeed if such were not the effects of so vile a system [—wondrous if the lamb did not now and then change into the lion—and man become the monster! Well, Mr. Meagies, so was it with me ~—and I, a man some short while since, have been turned into a monster.” . “ How wildly—how terribly you talk!" exclaimed Meagles, almost frightened—brave and daunticas though he naturally was—by Melmoth's words and manner. “And yet you must prepare to hear things more wild and terrible still, Mr. Meagies,” said the unhappy wretch, “if you persist in knowing my history.” “Ido persist—I am anxious to hear it,” returned Meagles, still with a cold shudder—as if the dreadful things that were coming already rose looming is spectral shapes and ghastly forms amidst the hase of distance. “Do not be afraid to make me your con- fidant: if you have committed murder, I would not raise a hand against you—no, nor even upbraid you —for I should know that you are a victim, and not s criminal—that society is the real offender, and you only the instrument. Fear not, then, to reveal all— to confess everything—and you may expect pity, but not blame !" “But, my good friend,” exclaimed Meimoth, sud- denly raising his voice as if it were a whiriwind,— “vou will have to listen to atrocities that will make your blood ran cold——” “Hush! hush!" said Meagles, in alarm lest the man's loud voice should be overheard. “And your hair stand on end———” “ Hush! hush! I say.” * And the very flesh oreep upon your bones !° ‘For God's sake, moderate your tone.” “Ah! to be sure,” exclaimed Melmoth: “I forgot that we might be overheard. But are you pre “T am prepared to hear anything, no matter how dreadfal—how appalling,” responded Meagies. “I shall not wince.” “Do not make too sure. Let me see what you can stand in the shape of horrors—how much your nerves can endure in the shape of monstrosities. But whes aid you return So Loan “ Nearly a fortnight ago,” answered Meagies. received s pardon—a pardon for nothing——” eo oe | DOO (C It phinges | SS (CO