The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 384: what you’re looking at

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

| THE MYSTERIES. the demon in its nature than I had of the angel in my heart. I entered therefore that cemetery: but scarcely bad I diverged from the pathway aad begun to ramble amongst the tomb-stones, when an impatient voice cried out, ‘ Take care of yourself : there are man-iraps and spring-guns planted there !" —This fearful warning, which reminded me ef a danger that I had for the moment lost sight of, made me step back into the path-way: and, looking round, I saw a man coming out of the cburch- porch. He it was who had given me the warning: and, as I speedily recovered my self-poasession, I judged by his appearance that he was a good- humoured kind of a person. Nor was I mistaken; and we speedily got into conversation tegether. He told me that he was employed to remain there during the day to see that people passing through the churchyard did not move out of the path-way, as man-traps and spring-guns had been planted in wg the thoughts, the instincts, and the impulses which waged their tremendous warfare within my soul. Talk of the roaring, raging, conflicting billows of a whirlpool—they were naught to the hattliug fury of my sensations !—talk of the eddies of sand thrown u;, in whirling columns by the burricane un Arabia’s desert—they were nothing in comparison with my jarring inclinations! I would have given worlds to go back—but an indomitable power urged me on: I would have laid down my life to be able to turn and flee—but a destiny that knew not pity nor remorse compelled me to go forward. It seemed as if I had two minds—the one wherein all the better feelings of my nature had concentrated themselves: the other forming the focus of all the influences of hell !’’ “ And the latter triumphed?” said Meagles, ia a voice that was low and subdued with mingled sus- pense and consternation. “Yes—hell triumphed !” returned Melmoth, a consequence of the late mysterious desecration of | ghastly expression sweeping over his countenance. the graves in other cemeteries. Affecting to bea blunt, off hand, frank-speaking sailor, I soon won his coufidence; and he explained to me how the spring- guns were set, with their numerous wires diverging in all directions, and how the man-traps were con- cealed in the grass between the graves. In fine, little suspecting that I was the moneter whose hideous deeds had led to the adoption of all these precautions, the man explained everytoing without reserve; and, after a long conversation, I left him. During the remainder of that day I wandered about with my mind full of all I had just heard;—and the longer I reflected thereupon, the more deeply could I feel the influence of the demon winding itself as it were around my heart. Evening came—and my blood was already boiling at fever heat: a presentiment of what I was doomed that night to do arose in my mind, filling me with anguish and loathing, and making me curse the hour when I was born, I felt that I was a monomaniac—and J abhorred myself; I knew that @ species of madness had overtaken me, twbuing me with appalling tendencies, but not de- priving me of the faculty of deploring them. I was goaded on to insanity of action, though remaining perfectly rational in my ideas. But as the darkness of night deepened I became strangely and wildly agitated; and it seemed as if a strong hand seized upon me by the nape of the neck and impelled me ooward in the particular course chalked out by an infernal destiny and against which there was no pos- sibility of resistance. Thus was I hurried back to the den where I had been staying—and thus was I prompted to take my spade and conceal it as well as I could about my person. In like manner was I urged to a cutler’s shop, where I expended my last sixpence in the purchase of a pair of scissors. Qh! truly, Mr. Meagles—truly is all this the fearful nar- rative of impulsive madness the most horrible—the most diabolical !” ‘It is indeed, my poor friend—it is indeed!” ex- olaimed Meagles, who was fascinated by the appall- ing interest of the tale even as the bird is by the eye . of the snake—a horrible fascination whence the escape which would prove so welcome is impossible! “ But let me hasten and bring my hideous story to a conclysion,” said Melmoth, with abruptuess alike 0 voice and manner: “ for I myself am getting sick ef it, as I am sure you must ba. Well, then, I re- une “I entered the churchyard, though recoiling from the hideous and varied dangers which menaced me. For I knew that the spring-guns were charged ready to vomit forth death or inflict disabling wounds,—and that the steel-traps were yawning in all directions like serpents, with their mouths open in the lorig damp grass. But hell which gave me its instincts, lent me also ite cunning: and mounting upon the tomb-stones, I used them as a bridge to convey me safely over the perils that lay concealed below. Nevertheless, every sound alarmed me—filling my soul with terrors the most excruciating, as if the voice of Death were whisper- ing upon every breeze and his foot-fall were heard in the waving of the grass. Did a dog bark in the distance, I instantaneously fancied that it was the bay of a blood-hound scenting me in my unholy work: and the tread of a passer-by in the adjoin- ing lane was taken to be that of a pursuer. Thus was my course frequently interrupted by my fears and imaginings: but all those apprehensions proved groundless on that occasinn. At last, through the faint glimmering of the moonlight, I beheld a new-made grave: and then, as the instinct of the tiger warms for blood when ite prey approaches, did my soul experience its horrible longing to dese- crate the earthy solitude of the dead. By the exercise of a little caution I discovered in which direction the wire of the spring-gun ran; and with the scissors I cut a piece clean out of the middle. For you must understand that the spring-gun re- volves upon a swivel, and turning in the direction of the wire which is trodden upon, explodes point- blank at the trespasser: therefore, by delicately feeling forthe wire and cutting a portion of it away, it became perfectly safe to tread on this particular spot whence the wire was thus removed. Andnow I am touching upon a sad—a mournful—a horrible episode in a narrative where all is sad, or mournful, or horrible; but you will understand how previous horrors could be outvied—so far as the magnitude of the desecration and the anguish of my soul were concerned —when I tell you that having hollowed the grave, dragged up the coffin, and torn off the lid, I beheld the marble countenance of my own wife /” “Your own wife !” echoed Meagles, starting with a spasmodic shock. “ This is horrible—horri- turned to the churchyard which I had visited in the , ble!” morning ; and heaven knows how agonizing were | a nn ae “ Most horrible—most horrible!” groaned Med (C DOO SS