The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

eee 2 eee ee ees | re THR MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. | 18 GE di ; pez egé the Park, under pretence of watching over health of Adolphus. My poor lady has often ¢ senses. Her anguish was ineffable: it must have been so—and in the wildness of her despair, as she afterwards told me, she plainly and openly accused her brother-in-law, who in the meantime had re- tarned to the Park, of making away with his nephew. He rejected the accusation with an in- dignant burst of passion, which seemed so natural thet it made her ladyahip regret sho should have advanced such a charge. The medical man was there to corroborate Mr. Everton's denial of the wiekedness; and for the time being the poor lady's dark suspicions were lulled, or perhaps absorbed in the bitterness of her grief. She had not the satis- faction, as she subsequently observed to me, of con- templating her dear child’s remains: fur they wore already, as was represented to her, locked up in the coffin which was about to be borne away to the tomb. She was however conveyed by her female dependants to the chamber of death: and she wept scalding tears over the coffin. She was borne back to her own room in a state of unconsciousness— fever supervened—and she remained delirious for several days. When convalescent, her brother-in- law remonsirsted with her for the infamous charge ehe had levelled against him; and while again in- dignantly repudiating it, he bade her observe that it was an ungrateful recompense for his kind for- bearance in keeping the secret of her amour with your lordship. My poor lady fancied she beheld a threat im this intimation; and ‘hough her sus- picions in respect to poor Adolphus’s death revived eomewhat in her bosom, she felt herself s0 com- pletely in the power of her brother-in-law that she dared not give utterance to another word.” “The earth contains no miscreant greater than that brother-in-law!” interjected the Marquis of “Mrs. Jameson, all these arrangements which he made at the Park, and which you have deseribed,—the surrounding Adolphus with his own away of yourself and the other faithful servants of the household—and the administration of some me- dicament which paralysed her ladyship for a whole week,—all these things were done to enable him to earry out his diabolical design! For the corpse of & pauper boy was seeretly conveyed into the house by night—while Adolphus was borne away to Beoch- eee. cette oe ——a ee eee me lw lee - Tree Lodge,—a place possessed by Mr. Everton in the village of Hornsey, and where poor Adolphus remained sixteen years in captivity |” Mrs. Jameson was horrified at this statement ; and some minates elapsed ere she could resume her narrative. But at length she continued thus :— **As soon as my poor mistress was again conval- escent, she hastened to London to be at the town- mansion when her husband should arrive from India: and then it was she told me of all that had taken place at the Park. Of course the tidings of Adolphus’s death had already reached us in London ; and I can assure you that heads were gloomily shaken, suspicious looks exchanged, and dark mis- givings murmuringly whispered amongst us ail. But what could we say? what could we dof— and I, who was most in her ladyship’s secrets, knew how completely she was in the power of her brother- in-law! Well, the General returned from India. Dh! how altered he was. He never was of prepos~ sessing appearance: but he came beck looking like a wretched old man—with broken constitution and shattered health, all sacrificed at the shrine of his ambition! It was a bard task for my poor lady to maintain anything like oompusure when he conversed with her upon her®pursuite during the years of his absence. He was much cut up by hearing of the death of his son,—which intelligence, I should observe, had reached him the instant he set foot in England, and therefore previous to his arrival in London. In one sense it was fortunate that her ladyship had an excuse for her affliction and her tears : inasmuch as hor grief constituted a mask to veil from her husband’s eyes the confusion and the remorse ebe felt at encountering him again. A few months afterwards he died. There was no foul play in his case: he was wrtbaie: Seeriieraah stasis tomb when he arrived ngland. His brother then assumed the title and took possession of the estates,—her ladyship having only a jointure of three thousand a-year.” “And were you aware,” asked Lord Eagledean, “that at the expiration of twelve months from his lordship’s death, I wrote from Germany to your poor mistress ?” “Yes, my lord—I am approaching that subject now. Her brother-in-law, who had become Lord Everton, doubtless expected that you would take some such step as that—and of course, from all you have told me, it by no means suited hitn that you should return to England.” “‘ No—because he might have been well aware that if I became the husband of your mistress, I should institute a strict inquiry into the circun® stances of Adolphus’s death. And moreover,” con- tinued the Marquis of Kagledean, “there can be no doubt that he had already come to an under. standing with .his sister-in-law’s brother, Sir John Marston,—that while he was to do what he thought fit -to obtain the title and estates of Everton, Marston and Petersfield might on their side look upon the fortunes of Elizabeth and Frank as their own booty. But proceed, Mrs. Jameson.” “Well, my lord, 1 was going to observe,” con- tinued the old housekeeper, “that my lady’s brother-in-law was on the look-out either for your return to England, or else fur the arrival of letters from you. A letter did come—and he intercepted it. When be had read it, he took it to my mistress, - —_— -_—- @ —f & wa “8 | a a gece a COLL (C DOO CS (GO)