The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 61: what you’re looking at

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

i 46 THE MYSESEINA, both that the door of the cellar into which he had | reality motived only by a precautionary sense, us entered, was not locked. Inspired by this| whereas it subsequently appeared in Sir Richard assurance, Sir Richard Stamford followed his leader ; | Stamford’s esthnation to be a deed of magnanimous —and now they paused for a few minutes to gain } generosity. ? breath and deliberate upon the course to be adopted.| In a word, then, the commercial traveller opened The decision to which they came was indeed the only | the door as noiselessly as he could, and seizing alternative that the circumstances offered: namely, to | the baronet’s arm pushed him gently forth. Sir steal up into the house as gently as possible, and risk | Richard was only too giad to obey the impulse, all the rest. It might be that they would succeed | and the moment he had crossed the threshold inte in escaping stealthily forth into the street: it might | the open air, the door was closed behind him. also happen that they would be overheard by the in-/ It was at this instant that a groan, apparently mates; and in this latter case they must prepare to | coming from an upper storey, but sounding witha resort to means of either persuasion or violence, ac- | sepulchral hollowness as if it were in an empty cording to the nature of the individuals with whom | house, fell upon the startled ears of the commercial they were thus to be brought in contact. traveller. Still he listened, instead of rushing pre- Page opened the cellar door as noiselessly as pos- | cipitately from the place—for the moan he had sible—and all was darkness and silence. He ad-| heard was rather an indication of great agony, vanced a few steps, groping about with his extended | either mental or physical, than of alarm arising arms. In a few moments his hands encountered the | from any distarbance in the house. bannisters of a staircase; and up those steps he{ The groaning was repeated and continued; and slowly and cautiously ascended, Sir Richard Stam- | the commercial traveller, ever prying and inquisi- ford following close behind. tive, began to experience an inclination to satisfy Still all was darkness and silence in the house! | his curiosity in respect to these doleful sounds. They gained the ground-floor in this manner; | Creeping to the bottom of the stairs, he again lis- and on entering the passage at the head of the/|tened with breathless attention; and now the kitchen-stairs up which they had just come, a faint | moaning, which every ‘nstant beemme more in- glimmering of light, shed by some lamp outside or | tense, was mingled with ejaculations of pain and from some opposite window, peeped through the! broken sentences conveying some idea of the dingy fan-light over the low and narrow street-door | forlorn position of the wretch who uttered them. at the farther end. * Oh! this is dreadfal——dreadful! To be de- This sickly and ineffectual gleaming was just suffi- | serted———left to die alone——alone——alone——. cient to show the two fugitives where that door was | all alone——in this desolate place! Will no one sitaated—but did not enable them to catch the | come?-a single drop of water-——only a single slightest glimpse of each other’s countenance. drop———my God! my God!” And still all was darkueas and silence in the! The commercial travellerdiad gathered gufiicient house ! to convince him that he incurred not the slightest Slowly—noiselessly—and with peinful caution, | risk by ascending to the succour of the anhappy as if they were afraid of making even a board creak } man whose lameagtations thus reached his, ears ;— beneath their feet, they crept along’ the passage—j|and he accordingly groped his way up a narrow taking five minutes to thread a little corridor of | staircase, until a faint light, glimmering through sbout as many yards in length. the chinks in the door of a back room on the second Page was in advance, and consequently gained | storey, induced him to pause there and listen again. the street-door first. ; The moans came from within; and Page unhesi- He passed his hand hastily up and down, and felt | tatingly entered the chamber. that it was bolted: the key was however in the lock.| Heavens! what a spectacle met his eyes! To draw back the bolts without noise was nota{ In a wretched bed, the blankets of which were very easy task—for they creaked alarmingly even | of the most filthy description, lay an old man when moved a hair’s breadth; and so gradually was | whose face was as pale as that of a corpse, and this portion of the momentous night’s work per- | whose dim and glassy eyes, so haggard and sunken, formed, that upwards of ten minutes were wasted | were surrounded with that deep blueish tint which thereat. But at length the bolts were drawn back | denotes the influence of a.wasting disease and —and the door was unlocked ! heralds the approach of death. His cheeks were It now struck Page that if he and his companion | hollow and thin; and a beard of several days’ were both to sally forth together, they would be | growth enhanced the hideousness of his appearance. more likely to attract the natice of any of their | Oae emaciated arm supported the aching head— enemies who might be lurking about, than if they | the other lay outside the coverlid, which the hand departed separately. But the commercial traveller | was clutching as if in the frenzy of despair y dared not even trust his voice to whisper this pro-| The chamber was not without furniture: bat posal to the baronet; for he knew how even the | everything denoted neglect, and was characterized faintest utterance of the human tongue is apt to| rather by a loathsome squalor than a downright sound aniidst the deep silence in which a house is|penury. For there was food in a cupboard, the plunged at the dead of night ;—and he feared that if | door of which stood open—and there was a bottle ac alara were raised in that dwelling, it woukd spread | of spirits upon a shelf—and three or four shillings, throughout the neighbourhood, so that their recap- | together with some haif-pence, lay upon the mantle. ure would certainly ensue. On the other hand he | But everywhere dust and dirt had acqumulated, ~ conjectured that if he were to gpen the door and|on the fivor, where a scanty carpet lay all kicked issue forth himself, the barongt, in his anxiety to | up—on the blackened and grease-stained walls— escape, would not have the pruence or forethought | on the dingy window-blind—on the chest of drawers to remain a little while behind ;—and in this per-|the table, the two or three obairs, and the bed alexity, Page resolved upon a course which was in | iteelf! ae EE COMIC OOOKS. Com