The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 287: what you’re looking at

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tees ot 278 Adolpbus to maintain his usual demaanour, ao that the Earl might believe him anxious to avoid the risk of showing the ladies by his looks that any- thing extraordinary had taken place. As for Isa- bella, —she was inwardly sad at having been compelled by a sense of duty to pen that note to Christian Ashton to which we have already alluded; and not being versed in the arts of dissimulation, she could not outwardly conceal this mournful pensiveness. The dinner passed away; and when the ladies retired to the drawing-room, the Earl accompanied them,—not from any particular motive, but merely because on this occasion he had no inclination to ait over his wine. Adolphus went out to take a short ramble by himeelf: for he again felt the necessity of giving way to his reflections. Thus the evening passed without Adolphus and Ethel being left alone together even for a single in- stant. We must observe, for the better comprehension of what is to follow, that the Countess of Lascelles still slept apart from her husband; and though the Earl was becoming impatient of this separa- tion of chambers, he had not as yet iusisted that it should cease. Night came: silence prevailed throughout the palatial mansion of the Earl of Lascelles. Were all sleeping there? Who can say? When the world retire to rest in the evening, they know not what may transpire during the many hours of darkness ere they awaken to the light again. And during those hours what deeds of mystery and horror are often perpetrated! Wherefore to the timid-minded is night more or less termble, even though their own consciences be without reproach ? It is because they know that crime chooses the hour of darkness wherein to achiove its purpose: they know that guilt shrouds iteelf beneath that sombre veil when creeping stealthily along its path of iniquity. They know that if their intel- figence can divest night of its superstitious terrors, yet that nevertheless real objects of horror are stalking abroad, and that the votaries of crime constitute frightful shapes. They know that mur- der, and burglary, and violence of every descrip- tion are fearfully personified during the hours of darkness; and that the breeze which sighs or that the wind which howls around their dwellings, may be wafting the last low moan or else the loud ery of the murdered victim’s agony. Yes—night has its terrors: it is peopled with fearful shapes ;— and the dark passions of man accomplish all this! The night passed—and morning dawned upon the palatial mansion of the Earl of Lascelles. It was a beautiful day to which that night had thus given birth: the beams of the orient sun shone upon the emerald verdure of the gardens, and made the fruitage glow as if gems were appended to every bough. The birds were carolling in the trees: window after window on the domestica’ storey was opened to admit the breeze of morn, as the occupants of those rooms rose from their couches to apparel themselves for the work of another day. And now a little later, as eight o’clock approached, the casements of other cham- bers were opened,—Isabella’s here-—that of Adol- phus there—and Ethel’s on the ground-floor. The draperies fluttered gently to that softly breathiog a Ee @ aD oo throughout the mansion. ‘wants began flocking thither, with ghastly horror a. ee ee SY GD: Cc ET EIS PO > THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. zephyr, which carried the blithe sovg of birds upon its wing, and penetrating to avery car, might have infused serene happiness into every heart. But, ah! what horrible rumour is this which towards nine o’clock begins to circulate like wild- fire throughout the palatial mansion ?—has murder been doing ita dread work during the darkness of the past night? gr is it some frightful error ? No: it is all but too true; and the unfortunate Kari of Lascelles has been made the victim of a foul and mysterious assassination. It appeared, from tho statement of Makapeane, that he went as usual to hig master’s suite af rooms a little before nine o’clock ; and that on en- tering the bed-chamber, he was horrified an be- holding the sheet deluged with blood. He approached—and found the Earl lying on his back, with his throat literally cut from eer to ear. ‘Seized with a mortal terror, he rushed forth on the landing, and reised that cry of murder, which awaking such terrible echoes, speedily reverberated Then the ather ser- depicted on their countenances: Adolphus, the Countess, and Isabella, from their own respective chambers, sped with wild distracted looks in the aame direction ;—and that marning of such serena blisafulness out of doors, was one fraught with dread confusion, trouble, mystery, and affright within thoso walls. | Who could have done the deed? Where was the weapon with which it was secomplished? This was not to be found. The nearest surgeon of the neighbourhood, who was quickly sent, for, and who was speedily on the spot, declared that the Earl must have been dead some houra—and that it was consequently in the depth of tha night when the red right arm of Murder bared itself for this tremendoys deed. Furthermore, the medical authority affirmed that the fatal wound was ia- flicted by some very sharp instrument; hat that from certain appearances, he was convinoed it was not with a razor, — his opinion being that it was a large knife. Whatever tho instrument were, deeth must have been instantaneous: the unfortunate old nobleman. must have died al- most without a groan. But that instrument, as we bave already said, was not to be found; and when the polica arrived upon the spot, nothing was discovered to attach euspicion to any parti- cular individual. Every room throughout the mansion was atrictly searched,—Adolphus, the Countess, and Jesabella desiring that theirs might form no exception, as they did not choose to draw a line of demarcation hetween themselves and the domestics under such circumstances. Bug in none af the many apartments of that house was there discovered the slightest scintillation of a clae to the assassin. Yet the conviction was strong that the perpetrator of the deed must be an inmate of the mangion. No burglarious entry had been effected: no door had been forced—no window. had been found open, when the servants first descended from their own chambera, If therefore the assassin was not a dweller within those walls could he have been aecreted for houra beneath the Earl’s bed awaiting his opportunity to commit the dreadful crime? But in that case, haw did he escape after the deed was done? Ooertainly COMMUC DOO CS (COL