The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 223: what you’re looking at

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

210. a a ee workhouse room, and became changed into the being that was pillowed upon the wormy soil up-cast from the yawning grave close by. And I began to think with the mind of that sleeping counterpart of myself—and I began to see also with hiseyes. For presently the deep, deep silence of the church- yard was broken by the low rustling of the it was horrible—horrible!—for the cemetery was giving up its dead to render the night appalling— and the spectres of the departed were mingling then in death as never had they mingled in life! The pampered son of luxury and the ocenpant of the pauper’s grave were close there: the wealthy tradesman’s wife, who had diad ef a sur feit, and the lank form of the neadiiseremman, done to death by famine and cold in one-.ef the lomg, long nights of winter, were next to ensh other now! And there were the ghastly shepes of men and women who had been hanged, with thehalfers round winding-sheets sa tha ghastly multitude mustered in death's array andi puensoded through the church- covering the teeth—the under-jaw held up by the white bandage—and the clean dry winding-sheet ! Yes—I saw all this—I marked all this—my me- mory received an impress of all those details, as indelibly as if seared upon. the brain by a red-hot fron! And them methought that [ eprang sad- denly from the spot where I had been lying in a pro- found sleop—that I seized upon one of those apectral shapes floating past me—that I felt its wretch might pass away before he should have wormed from him the clue to that morbid con- dition of mind whereof he had given such astound- {ng proofs by the narrative of a dream which he had looked upon as a fact. But on feeling Melmoth’s pulse and placing a hand upon his heart, the surgeon discovered that life was not extinct; and he hastened to apply the usual restoratives. Ina few minutes the patient recovered his senses, but was too much exhausted to speak: the surgeon accordingly administered some medicme the effect of which was shortly to -Ull him inte a gentle repose—and the medical man then quitted the infirmary, with an intimation to the nume that he should return in the after- noen. Now it happened that this surgeon was intimately acquainted with Mr. Thurston, in whose medical knowledge and psychological information he placed the utmost confidence. He accordingly repaired direct to the West End of the town—called in May Patr—and communicated to Mr. Thurston the fact that there was at the present moment a very ex- tmnerdinary case of mental hallucination in White- chagel peor-house. He entered into details; and the curiosity of Mr. Thurston was so excited, that visita to pay in the reighbeurhod ;—and then there were some recently soquired objecta af imterest to show in the surgery,—euch as a wen, a6 Ihege aga Dutch cheese, taken. off a man’s headend in a jar—an eye thet was removed from. its socket, the patient having received a blow thereon which one-horss chaise was ordesed round to the door ; and it was about half-past three in the afternoon when the two medical gentlemen alighted at the | gate of Whitechapel workhouse. The surgeon of the establishment led the way direct to the infirmary ,followed by Mr. Thurston; and as they passed through the larger room of which mention has already been made, the former gentleman pointed to a group of three whispering at the samo time to his friend, “ Those two boys and thet girl belong to the patient we are about to visit.” ‘‘Ah! poor devils,” said Thurston, carelessly: “they look thin and pale enough.” “You should have seen them this morning— rustling in the grasp of my right hand, and | before they put on the clothes they are wearing ite flesh cold as ic, to the touch of my it | now,” observed the parish doctor, still speaking in slowly turned iif marble countenance and bent its | a low tone;—“‘ they were positively horrible to gaze stony gaze upon me—that I felt its breath, cold, ; upon! But these things can’t be helped, I sup- cold as wintry air upon my cheek—end that I re- | pose,” he added, as he turned and led the way into ita features—-O God! the features of | the wretched crib where Melmoth was lying. my own wife!” Melmoth now fell back with a hollow moan, and, | Some his eyes, lay like one dead‘ “There! do you see that gentleman along with the doctor of this place?” suddenly whispered the eldest | | of the three children, as he caught each of the other surgeon was alarmed—no, not alarmed | two with nervous violence, by thearm. “ Look—I exactly; for he was too much sccustomed to see | mean that gentleman whois just following the doctor die, to be able to care much about it: | into father’s room. Ah! he fs the wicked, unkind, peupers bat he felt vexed at the idea that the present poor | heartlese man who took away poor baby’s body and (COU (C DOO (CO