The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 145: what you’re looking at

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

EL LL a a a a LE I TIE SS) Ce EES AE, — > SERN TE AR SS cn I I TTT {RE | hm @+ @. —_ =a =n wee “ap epee when he apgaared beneath Priscilla’s window at her | i torture himself in the same manner as before; and thus his feelings were worked up by the morbid action of his imagination to such a pitch, that he actually came to the conclusion they were unfitted for each other, and that they ought to seperate so far as circumstances would allow. Not for a moment did he ever suspect her purity or mistrust her honour ; and he know that his own temper was to s certain extent the cause of her From the letter which he wrote to his wife, the reader has soen he was thus far sensible of his own unfortunate disposition ae to comprehend that the very magnitude of his love rendered him a tyrant. It was therefore as much out of consideration for Priscilla as in obedience to the promptings of his own diseased mind and un- easy spirit, that he insisted on that i chambers. His object was that they should keep as much apart as possible, so that she might be removed from the influence of his unforturiate temper, and he himself might be debarred from the cirocum- stances and occasions which developed its infir mities. But in the hours of slumber his soul was wide awake—his mind slept not; and thus in the wander- ings of somnambulism was he led towards the object of his love,—that love so deep, so wild, so eccentric! It was an irresiatible attraction exercising its power over his mind when the mystio spell of sleep was upon the body,—and his wife comprehended that it was so. Often and often did she think of reveal- ing to him, when they met in the day-time, how he sought her at night: but she shrank, with a foecling of delicacy and shame which cannot fail to be un- derstood, from making such a confesmon. She often thought seriously, too, of writmg in a letter what she dared not avow with the lips; and on many and many an occasion did she take pen and paper to commence that strange mysterious revela- tion: but she knew not how to find language even for the very commencement. And it was not only that sense of delicacy and shame which thus scaled her lips, and paralyzed the hand when it took up the pen; but it was also the fear of causing her husband a shock which might be fatal to his intel- lects: for she saw full well that he entertained not the slightest suspicion that he was s somnambulist. Thus did time wear on; and the secret remained | inviolable in her bosom. We must now observe that in the solitude of his . THE WYSTERINS OF THE COURT. of power which made him e somnambulist: but cer tain it is that the letter which Mrs. Broughton picked up one night in the sitting-room, and which household, his wife alone excepted. But it appearcd that it was only at intervals he wae thus seised with fits of somnambulism ; and when once the spell wee upon him he would continue his deop-walkmee fe several ts running. These fits generally took him after his mind had experienced any unusual degree of excitement; and then they would be fol- lowed by an interval of many weeks—perhape even months—before they were renewed. The greater the excitement which acted as the motive cause, the more frequently were the sleep-walkings repeated, and the longer the period of the fit’s duration. Thus was it that Lady Castlemaine, who imcw his habit so well, felt assured when she set Mrs. Broughton on the watch, that her husband would repeat his visit to her chamber. When a few days back she had suddenly wakened up and found him standing by her bedside—and when, as she stretched out her arms to him, he fled so precipitately,—she was about to reveal that long- maintained secret the avowal of which had now become n to clear up her own honour ;— and when she would have afterwards penned a few lines to him, it was that she had made up her mind to commit to paper that revelation which he hed afforded her not the opportunity of breathing from her lips. But, as the reader has seen, her strength failed her; and the attempt was followed by relapse. On back to consciousness on the fourth day, she determined to make a confidante « f , har Gathcte Broughton,—met merely ite the peepose | of using the woman’s aid to render the Earl ac- "quainted with what she was denied every other op- PEE o- own chamber—in the day-time, when wide awake, portunity of revealing to him—but also that Mrs. and often of an evening ere retiring to his couch— . Broughton herself might serve as a witness of the Lord Castlemaine would draw forth from his desk actual occurrence of his somnambulistic visit, and some letters that he had received from Priscilla ‘ thus under any circumstances be enabled to testify during the time of his courtship ; and it was to him | to the honour of her mistress. a melancholy pleasure to read and re-peruse thom | It was now, therefore, for the first time that Lord over and over. again. Perhaps he was wont to do Castlemaine awoko—to speak literally—to the fact the same when under the influence of that mystie that he was a eomnambulist; end the reader mag — 0 2 epee @ eee eee ei Gee Ge E&OE) a> =D mee ee Oe, ed CO IMULUG CY DOO CS (COL