The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 252: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. the face of heaven. But the lynx-cyes of the had difficulty in embracing every feature of the premises; and thus did he proceed j delay or hesitation m the prosecution of his tack. Besides, it was evident enough, from his _ own occasional i that he had been well ; ! mutterings, , tutored by old Bob Shakerly, who though having scores of Dr. Ferney’s guineas, had not scrupled to sell his knowledge of the physician’s offered him. econ lighted by means of a noiselessly- ing lucifer-match. The Cannibal found him- acif, as he had been led to expect, in a small passage cating with a private staircase; and up this staircase he forthwith to ascend. Every now and then he stopped and listened: but all was still cilent. His club was under his arm—onoe hand carried the lantern—tho other, thrust into a pocket, elatched a pistol: so, that should anything to menace his safety, this desperate cha- sacter wis fully prepared for such an event. He gained the second storey: but here he sud- denly found himeelf at fault. Old Shakerly had described to him the arrangements of the house jast as he himself had been for years acquainted doctor's bed-chamber— where the museum and were situated—where the servants slept He | @arried in his head a complete map, s0 to speak, of Dr. Ferney’s dwelling, aceording to old Shakerly’s fauit? Wor the simple reason that the altera- tions which the physician had caused to be made - | door: there a 245 ingly entered it—and tried another door at the extremity. This also proved to be open; and that it was s0, must be attributed to an oversight on the part of Dr. Ferney himself—for this door come municated with a suite of apartments which the physician was almost invariably in the habit of keeping carefully closed. Where was it, then, that the Cannibal thus found himself? In the museum of physiological curiosities, anatomical ; and waxen effigies. For a moment, as the light of the lan- tern revealed these horrors to the Cannibal’s gaze, he was seized with the consternation of terror: but this effect was not likely to remain long upon the mind of such a te, eare- nothing individual as he ;—and the feeling was therefore quickly succeeded by one of curiosity. He stopped short, and looked around him. Here an Egyptian mummy, standing upright in its cofin-like box, met his view through the glass embalmed by Ferney’s own hand, and wrapped in a shroud, glared upon the Cannibal with its dull glassy eyes. Wherever his looks settled, it was to alight upon some hideous object—some ghastly spectacle—or some monstrous ity. He passed on imto the adjacent room, impelled by a feeling which he himself could scarcely understand. Here an array of em- balmed heads upon a shelf first arrested his vision: then his gase settled on a skull grinning on a table. He looked around: two waxen effigies, as large as life—representing human shapes afflicted with dire and loathsome discases —eppeared in their glase-fronted cases. Jars, also of transparent glass, containing infant mou eters, were in another part of the room; and a colossal skeleton, with one of its fleshless arms extended, next arrested his attention. But, Ah! over what other object did this gigantic atomy appear to be keeping guard ?—was that a living man ing in a coffin-like case, and seen through the glass door? or was it some fresh object of horror spparelled in the raiment of a gentleman? Chiffin, still impelled by that same irresistible feeling of curiosity, drew nearer; and holding up his lantern, threw ite rays completely upon this object im its receptacle. Dismay and terror sesised upon him: a subdued cry of con- sternation escaped his lipse—for it was Ralph Fare- fiald that seemed thus to be gusing forth at the Cannibal ! The club fell from Chiffin’s hand; and it was a marvel that the other still retained the lantern: but the handle thereof did his fingers clutch with convulsive force, as if some intuitive pre- vented him from losing the light which showed him that pale countenance on which his dism@ed and horrified looks were rivetted. Yes: there stood Ralph Farefield—to all appearance as if he: had not been dead a day—the same as Lady Saxondale had seen him when, a few months back, she was introduced to the mysteries of this museum. There he stood—that same Ralph Fare- field whom Chiffin had known upwards of nine- it |.teen years ago,—dressed, too, in the garb he was accustomed to wear, and with. nothing to indicate that he was dead save the wax-like pallor of his countenance and the dull fixed stare of the glassy eyes! There he stood—the corpee of that man who had been one of Chiffin’s earhest patrons in ane ° a Ea Sy rd (COL (C DOO CS (COL