The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 284: what you’re looking at

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

. fH MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. 275 warriage with my cousin !” he exclaimed, clutching with avidity at the thought. “Tsabella is no more your cousin, Adolphus,” responded the old nobleman, “than I am your father———and I am sot /’ he added emphati- eally. Adolphus raised his hands to his throbbing brows asif to ateady his wildly agitated thoughts: his brain seemed to whirl in confusion. Could it possibly be true? Was he an unwilling im- postor? had he lived thus long an animated lie without knowing it? hed he for twenty-four years passed in the world as s breathing falsehood, though utterly guiltless of wanton deceit? Oh, if it were so, he felt as if he could not survive it— *twere a blow too terrible to bear ! The old Earl had no such depth of feeling ; and though he was to a certain degree excited and dis- tressed, yat it was only to a degree, and not nearly to the same extent as the unbappy—the miserable —the soul-crushed Adolphus. Yet allin a moment there sprang up in the young man’s heart a sense of consolation—yes, consolation in the midst of auch overwhelming revelations as these. If he were not the Karl’s son, his crime in respect to her whom he had hitherto looked upon as hie mother- in-law became in a moment many, many shades lighter to contemplate, dark though ite hue stall remained, “Tell me how all this happened !—explain it!” he said, with quick and excited utterance: “for heaven’s sake keep me not another moment in ‘* Listen then,” said the Earl, speaking with less silliness and flippancy than was his wont, “It was at Bloomfield that I was residing with my first wife when ason and heir was born twenty- four years and a half ago, A few days after that birth, important business hurried me away to the Continent; and the serious embarrassments in which a near relation, who is long since dead, had involved himself at Vienna, detained me there for @ period of four months. When J returned to England my wife was in a northern county, on a visit to some relations there: and indeed, as latters had previously informed me, I was aasured that it was for the sake of her health that she had re- moved thither. I rejoined her: the child whom she represented to me as my sop, was healthy and thriving. Years passed an—and you know with what kindness you were treated by her who passed as your mother, and indeed from whose bosom you were nourished in your infancy. You are aware likewise that she was of the Catholic per- suasion and that she was attended by a priest in | began her last houra, when a mortal illness overtook her beneath this roof. To thet priest she confessed everything : but he dared not give her absolution unless she revealed to me the fraud which had been trated.” “Go on,” groaned Adolphus in a half-stifling voice. ‘““The revelation was made accordingly,” can- tinued the Earl: “but I swore to the Countess— your mother of adoption—that I would continue to treat you as my son and never expose the fraud to the world. She died with a conscience much relieved———she died blessing me,” added the old nobleman, mow displaying deeper fecling than Adolphus had ever before seen him exhibit. “And why that fraud?” asked the young man, atill profoundly agitated. “I have already told you that I was abruptly called away from England when my child wae three days old. A month afterwards that child died. There were circumstances attending its birth—circumstances so painful to its mother, as to preclude the idea that she could ever again hope to become a parent. She dreaded lest the severance of the tie which that child’s existence constituted betwixt herself and me should alienate 'may heart from ber, and make me look upon her even with aversion as a wife who could give no heir to the haughty name of Lascelles. She know moreover that if anything happened to me, the estates would devolve upon my sister—Jsabella’s mother,—aend that she herself (my wife, I mean) would have to retire upon a small jointure, almost excluded as it were from that family of which it was her pride to be one of the heads. All these reasons induced her to practise the cheat which I have described. Opportunities were favourable: I was absent, with a certainty of remaining away for yet some months—-she had a surgeon and a nurse accessible to dribery—female dependants who were devoted to her—and I had left her with the ilimitable command of funds. You understand the ree(—I need say no more.” “ Yes, there is something more for you to tell mef” answered Adolphus: then, after a pause, he said—and the words appeared to half choke him, —“ Whose son am I P” “A poor family’s who resided in some midland county which my wife traversed on her way to her friends in the north. This family, being heavily bribed, departed at once for America,—such imme- diate removal to foreign clime being the para- mount condition of the compact. They have never since been heard of: but still, as I just now said, there is always the possibility, if not the proba- bility of some of them turning up———” “ And tha name of this family ?” said Adolphus, quickly. “Ido not know it,” replied the Earl: “and I can give the most satisfactory reason in the world —which is, that I never knew it. Even if the late Countess intended to mention it, she did not —which is just the same thing as if she had never meant to tell me at all.” The old nobleman, having spoken in a serious and deliberate manner for some time, was now relapsing into his wonted frivolity,—which only served to aggravate the bitterness of feelings ex- perienced by the avretched Adolphus. The latter to pece the library in an agitated manner; and vainly did he essay to collect his thoughts sufficiently for calm deliberation. It was a fearful blow which had struck him ; and though the truth had been revealed slowly by his putative father, the effect was nevertheless as if it had smitten him with s most cruel abruptness. As we have already said, the only glimmer of light which pene- trated into the darkness of his mind, arose from the fact that his amour with Ethel had ceased to wear an incestuous aspect. But on the other hand, in what a position stood heP At any mo- ment an accident might unmask him: some un- foreseen circumstance might suddenly transpire to prove to the whole world that instead of being the rightful heir to the Earidom and estates of Lae- err ES Se ) P @ we Gale ee oP en eee eee eee TS a 9 TR ty (COL (C DOO CS (COL