The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 251: what you’re looking at

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240 depth or far across the yawning abyss into whica the steeds, if they took fright, might plunge the whole equipage. Yes—with supefstitions awe, we say: because many, and often fearful, were the tales which were told of deeds of violence committed in that place,— robberies and murders—rapes upon poor benighted female wanderers—and infanticides perpetrated by unmarried mothers who would travel thither from ‘distances even of many miles in order to dispose of the living evidences of their shame. -There were histories of terrible accidents told, too, concerning the Devil’s Panch-Bow],—how coaches had been precipitated into the abyss—how poor pediars, ig- norant of the gulf that lay beyond the low em- bankment, had stepped over it in the depth of night, with the idea of snatching a few hours’ repose in a fresh green field, and had thus fallen into the eternal sleep of death—and how horses had stumbled and gone down with their riders to the bottom of the in- feral pit! - Many, and varied, and horrible, therefore, were the legends belonging to the Devil’s Punch-Bow];—and superstition had not failed to lend its aid in order to enhance the terrors of the plece. In the deep mid- ‘aight, it was eaid, strange. and spectral forms were seen hovering onthe brink of the abyss, or moving about in its vast depths,—shapes 90 grim and hideous that they would exist ever after in the memories of those who beheld them, as vividly as if impressed with red-hot searing iron op the brain,—terrible ap- paritions, to gaze on which only for a single instant were to unnerve the bravest man until the last mo- ment of his existence. Nor was this all. For the same superstition which propagated those tales, like- wise declared that once in évery year—on a certain day—or rather, at deep midnight—the Enemy of Mankind himeelf and al) his crew held their infernal orgies at that place. Then—while the moon veiled herself with the murky clouds and the stars sank ehudderingly behind the sable pall of darkness— while the wind moaned, and the owl hooted, and the furze rustled ominously—and while the wings of the bat whirred through the intense darkness,—then, in the midst of one of the long, long nights of winter, would: Satan ahd his fiends assemble round the hol- low to. evijoy their: hellisli revel. . And it was said that, when the Arch- Demon waved his mighty wand, a spring of pitchy blackness’ would issue forth from the bottom of the ravine; and higher—and higher— and higher would swell the sable tide, till it reached the brim,—so that the denizens of Satan’s Kingdam, thus gathered there in awful congress, might quaff deep draughts of the infernal nectar, whose taste was of human blood! Nay, more—so minutely had superstition elaborated all the grim cetails of the tremendous orgie, that it forgot not to declare how ae cups whence the fiends drank were made of dead men’s skulls—how the revellers danced franticly round and round their vast punch-bowl, uttering hideous cries and ‘shouts of maniac laughter—and how the whole terrible phantasmagoria disappeared suddenly, melting into thin air, the moment the cock crew at the first glimmering of dawn. | But taking all these tales and legends for what they are worth, the huge hollow which we have at- tempted to describe was in sooth a sinister-looking, carderous, cut-throat place. Jt was on the fourth evening after the incidents related in the previous chapter, that the Magsman a TRE MYTSTHRT GS. muffled up in his great rough coat, and grasping his club, began to clamber down the steep sides asd the Devil's Panch- Bowl. The clock of the nearest villagn had struck nine as he passed it some twenty minates previously; the sky was heavy with dark clouds, which were however broken sufficiently to allow the moon ts send her beams faintly forth;—and the wind was rustling amidst the furze to which the Magsmas clung as he lowered himself into the yawning abyas. Soon afterwards another individaal, who hadap. proached the hollow from a different direction, began to descend into it: then, én less than ten minutes,9 third—a fourth—a fifth—and a sixth,——all conin- from separate quarters aud at rehortyintéervals, — hurried downward to the sante point.-: coe BS Vee. At last the whole six met at :thd bottom of. the abyss; and six greater villains had asshredly never assembled before in so appropriate a spot, or in aay place with so suitable a name. The first, as already stated, was Joe the Mags- man: then there were Miles the Buzgloak, Dick the Tramper, and the Kinchin-Grand ;—and the party was madé up by two other men of an equally desperate character. . - “Well, here we- are panetaal, ‘according to the appointment made the night before last in- Los- don,” said Warren, throwing himself upon the ground, the others following his example. “To. teil you the truth, - I'm walk. Twenty-five miles I've done sindé beeakions this morning.” “ But you ain't too tired to act, though,” observed Dick the Tramper. « J should rather think not indeed,” retarned the Magsman. “There’s something I’m about to pour down my ‘thraat that would enable me to face and fight the devil himself.” “Ah! that’s brandy you mean, exclaimed. the Kinchin-Grand. “So much the. better.: J *"y6, got my flask filled to. Does anybody,want’sdme ?’na: It appeared that each individual -was equally well furnished; aud so the offer was declined: ~. “Now do you know exactly, old feller,” oo manded Miles the Bazgloak of the Magamao, “ what o’clock we may expect the Jarvey to rm along.the road?” - —- . « Why, at about twelve, I should say —certalnly not sooner,”.was the reply. ... - “Yes—but how do’ you jadge”. demanded the Kinchin-Grand. “Because we know — at all about it.” - 4% e “ You've just the same means of judging, os t have,” retarned the Magsman savagely. ss “ And how’s that 2” ‘s * Why—by knowing at what o’clook ‘the jarvey was to leave London this: morning, to be sure. Take that time first of all-next you know how many miles the Panch-Bow! is from town — and then you may reckon that the rattle-trap jogs on a about six miles an hour: well—that shows you that we may expect it between twelve and one." ; “Quite right, Mr. Warren,” said the. ‘Kinchin- ‘Grand. ..“ And so we have time to smoke our pipes and rest ourselves a bit. Well—that's a comfort’ for we've all walked pretty decently yesterday ‘and to-day—’specially each one taking a different direc tion, though all coming at last to the same boint.”.. _ © Ah! the Government litle thinks what, kind af COMIC OO© ‘yather tired>—after® my days. =_— hf, fire — same