The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 160: what you’re looking at

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

tomb to tomb—from stone to stone, would he pass or leap with celerity: but such was his evident horror of even suffering his fodt to brush against a blade of the grass that grew between the graves, that if ever he happened to stumble while thus strangely making his way through the churchyard, an ejaculation of fright would escape his lips and his whole frame would tremble with a mortal ter- ror. And all this time the man hugged the spade be- neath the rough garment which he wore. But if now and then he fancied that amidst the twilight gloom he beheld 2 human shape gliding stealthily along in the shade of the wall or through the laby- rinth of the tombs,—or if his disordered imagina- tion deluded him with the idea that a head was suddenly thrust up from behind one of the per- pendicular stones,—then how every nerve and ffbre in the frame of the unhappy wretch thrilled with excruciating apprehension—how every vein tingled with the blood that suddenly ran like pehtning there, but only to flow cold and icy to the But had this man any fixed purpose in thus wan- dering over the graves, making the memorials ot the dead his stepping-stones and carefully avoiding the cold clay which covered the coffins or lay be- tween the resting-places of perished humanity? And in thus pursuing his path, had he any definite spot in view ?—was there any special destination which he was endeavouring to reach? We know not. Certain, however, it is that all on a sudden the man paused—not on account of any sound filling him with terror or makmg him anxious to escape observation—but im apparent obedience to some instinctive feeling telling him that this toas the place, or under the guidance ot some spell that made him halt by its own mystic influence in the same way that it at other times urged him on. And the spot where the man had thus halted was where the mound of a newly-made grave appeared. The large lumps of damp clay were heaped rudely and negligently up: no trouble had been bestowed upon shaping the grave—no turf had been set over the elevation which marked the rest- ing-place of a. new victim to the maw of all-de- stroying Death. Ah! doubtless it was some poor, friendless creature—male or female—that had been buried there :—and the sexton’s fee was too small to induce him to bestow any care upon a task for which he was so indifferently remunerated ! This grave lay near a flat tombstone ; — and kneeling upon the latter, the man felt carefully— slowly—and cautiously all round and about that newly-made grave. To this portion of his task did he devote upwards of five minutes,—not con- tenting himself with merely passing his hand everywhere near and over the grave, but likewise examining the spot with keen and penetrating looks. At length his finger encountered some object from which his touch recoiled at first, while a cold tremor passed over his frame and the perspiration barst forth once more upon his brow: but, speedily recovering his presence of mind, he again felt cau- tiously and delicately for that object which his finger had ere now encountered. Again he touched tt—he raised it gently up : it’was only 9 wire which stretched over that spot, and which passed throngh 147 the roughly-piled mound of damp clay that marked the new-made grave. Yes—it was only a wire: but how delicately— how cautiously—how timidly did the man touch it. Simply raising it half an inch from the ground— neither pulling it one way nor the other—oqually careful not to shake it, he suffered it to lie over the finger which he had thrust underneath it, Then, taking a pair of scissors from his pocket, he cut the wire in twain: and the moment this was done, he appeared to breathe more freely. Following the course of the wire in one direo- tion from the point where it was cat. the man clipped it asunder aghin at a distance of about three yatds ;—and then, following the wire in the other direction, he treated it ia a similar manner. Thus the pieces of wire that now remained in the vicinity of the grave, were isolated from: the rest; and the man, tearing them up without fear, twisted them round his hand into a skein or ball, and huried them to a distance. And now, as if seized with a sudden parexysm of activity, he grasped his spade and began te dig at the grave.as if he had @ particular task to per- form in a given time, life or death depending upon the issue. And to the aceomplishment of this labour did the spell-struck mortal strain his whole nerve and fibre,—dashing the spade down deep into the sojl—tossing tp the huge lumps with a marvellous speed, —-in fine, hollowing out: the grave much more speedily than a practised sexten could possibly have done it. ‘The porspiration poured off him like large drops of rain: the glow of heat into which the toil threw him, appeared to animate him with increased ar- dour, — heightening into a perfect fever of the blood, and expanding into a delirium of the brain. Madly, madly did he ply the spade: his efforts were almost superhuman. Never was implement worked with such marvellous rapidity—never was grave hollowed out with such wondrous speed... A horrible enthusiasm seémed to be inspiring the wretch in his loathsome work: he grew joyous— happy—intoxicated with triamph ;—and the nearer his labour brought him to the end of his task, the more delirious became his feelings—the more mad. dening the excitement of his soul. At length the spade struck upon the coffin ;— and an ejaculation of frenzied ecstacy burst from the man’s lips, as if that dull, hollow, sinister sound had just made the most delicious music to his ears, Through the deep obscurity that prevailed in tho depth of the grave, his eyes shone with the foro- cious and lurid glare of a tiger crouched in a cavern or concealed in a jangle ;—and as those terrible looks flashed. through the gloom, they might have been taken for corpse-lights shedding their ominous beams over the spot where a hideous desccration was in progress. The spade had speedily cleared away all the soil | which lay upon the lid of the coffin; and now the man addressed himself to the task of raising the coffin itself. This was speedily accomplished: for the wretch’s arms appeared to be made of iron capable of dashing aside any obstacle—competent to the performance of every task. Soon therefore was the coffin raised to a perpendicular position ir the grave: and when once it was thus lifted up on one end, the man had no trouble in dragging it forsk { from the grave. (COU (C DOO (CO