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 CL a I a a a I a I TI ES) CS EES EP, — > SER TE ARS a SES I cn TI AT Trt {Ee | hm @g+ @. —_ =a ean aiew “Sp feed the grass-plat filled her with such «a bewildering terror. After their marriage he continued, as the reader has learnt from Lady Castlemaine’s lips, to 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 s0 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 a 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 as 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 circum- stances and occasions which developed its infir 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 ao deep, so wild, so eccentric ! It was an irresistible attraction exercising ite 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 feeling 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 sealed 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 a 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 a somnambulist: but cer tain it is that the letter which Mrs. Broughton picked up one night in the sitting-room, and which she had since kept, was written by Priscilla to the Eari himeelf at the time of his wooing. If the reader will refer to it again, he will find that it must that letter with him on the night that it fell into Mrs. Broughton’s hands, it may easily be supposed that he had actually been reading it in his sleep ; and that, believing as he did at the time that his wife had dishonoured him, he was prompted to take it to her chamber, to reproach her for having proved faithlese #0 the energetic assurances of love con- household, his wife alone excepted. But it appearcd that it was only at intervals he was thus ecised with fits of somnambulism ; and when once the spell wae upon him he would continue his Seop-walkmee fr 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 tha 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 necessary 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 had 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 her faithful Broughton,—not merely for the purpose | 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 somnambuilistic visit, and some letters that he had received from Priscilla ‘ thus under any circumstances be enabled to testify during the time of his courtahip ; 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 awoke—to speak hterally—to the fact the same when under the influence of that mystic that he was a eomnambulist; end the reader mag — 0 2 epee @ eee eee ei Gee Ge ep © OEE) aD oe ee Oe ee, eed CO IMULUG CY DOO CS (COL