The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 331: what you’re looking at

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

, 828 did nut imagine: but having once brought herself to look the idea of this new crime fixedly in the face, she resolved that it should be perpetrated by sume means or another. Therefore she did not renounce her intention of making one more des- perate effort to consolidate her own power, and pursue the career from which for a moment the incident of the masquerading-drees had threatened to divert her altogether. If she had suddenly pur- posed to fiy from England, now that Chiffin was | i taken captive, she would have abandoned him to his fate, desperately reckless of whatsoever he might choose to say of her: but as she had made up her mind to remain, and prosecute her schemes to the end, it was absolutely necessary to bear a friendly part towards that man, and aid him to eacape, so that he should not be led into any dis- agreeable revelations with regard to antecedent circumstances. Lady Saxondale therefore decided that Chiffiz the Cannibal should be enabled to effect his escape : but how was this to be done? The windows of the chapel and the cloister were all protected by massive iron bars, as her ladyship had intimated whon directing the constable’s aitention to the fact; and the constable himself was keeping watch outaide the chapel-door, which was barred, bolted, and locked. Nevertheless, Ledy Saxondale could afford to smile at these circumstances,—inasmuch as there was a secret connected with the cloister known to no living soul except herself. Many long years back her husband had communicated it to her; and as it was a sort of hereditary mystery preserved in the family, she had never rovealed it to other cars. She sat in her chamber till midnight: and then, having ascertained by listening that the castle was all quiet, and that the servants had at length se- parated to their respective chambers, she prepared for the enterprise which she had in hand. First ehe took from her writing-desk a sum of money, not as yet have retired to rest. up at the windows on every side, she saw that one light was alone burning ; and this was at the casement of the passage where wate Lady Saxondale crossed the quadrangle, and stopped at a small low door in the north-western angle. She tried the key: but, as she had anti- - Cipated, it was too rusty to turn in the lock. She oiled it; and another essay proved sucoessful—the i | ‘oor opened—and she crossed the threshold. When | i SP rics Sn isp PS SE THR MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. E | inside, she closed the door; and then, by the of the lucifer-matches with which she was vided, re-lighted her lamp. She found herself the entrance of a narrow stone passage, whi forward into utter darkness, and where the chill struck like myriads of ice-shafts penetrating through her brain and to her very heart's core. She shuddered—her teeth chattered—aend she was Ee suddenly applied to her temples. But the air was pure—or at least free from mephitio vapours; and thus was it evident that the premises which she was entering, had apertures for the currents of the She proceeded along the narrow stone passage, advancing cautiously lest any of the masonry should have fallen in, and thus create a stumbling block in her way. But such was not the case: the masa of stonework forming the walls on either side, and the arching oojling, wes as solid and compact as if this corridor had been hollowed out of a granite rock itself: for the old castle not to belong to time, but unto eternity. passage was about twenty yards in length; and if terminated with a spiral ascent of steps, all of the hardest stone. Up these did Lady mount; and in a few minutes she entered a long solid 4 the cloister above. For this vault—if such it could be termed, which was not fresh air. Awful was the silonce and deadly the chill which prevailed in this place,—a silence fitted for the place of tombe—a chill such as that which sweeps from the sounding sea-lashed shores of Labrador. Lady Saxondale shuddered again—but it was more wit! the cold than with fear: (COL (C DOO CS (COL