The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 59: what you’re looking at

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44 from the moral tetanos which held her spell. bound ; aod clapping her hands franticly to her throbbing brows, she gave utterance to a hollow moan and sank upon the carpet. CHAPTER CXXXV. 4 4 NIGHT WITH A MURDERED MAN. Tux lamp which stood upon the table immediately began to grow dim as if a mist were perceptibly rising around it: steadily did that dimness increase every moment—uatil the light was subdued down into the faint glimmer of a distant star—and then it expired altogether, leaving the chamber involved in the blackest darkness. And upon the floor the milliner was stretched, aoder the influence of an irresistible rigidity which retained her spell-bound from the hair of her head to the sofes of her feet. An appalling consterna- tion was upon her—and yet she could not move a muscle nor give vent toa sound. Her mcuth was fast closed as with lockjaw; aud the same dreadful species of tetanos held all her limbs in its iron prisonage, leaving to every fibre and tendon the acateness of feeling and to every sense its peculiar faculty—but suspending all motion, and reducing the woman to the condition of an animated statue. Yes—but a statue animated with a vitality as fresh and a perception as vivid as if nota single function nor physical power were held in abey- ance ;—and thus everything which might happen to the miserable being while in this state, was certain to be characte: ised by a tremendous aggravation of concomitant feeling. Complete and effectual as was the physical restraint, so acute and keen was the moral perception; — and the moment Mrs. Brace became aware thas sie was reduced to this awful position, she likewise found herself enveloped ip a darkness so pitchy that it seemed to be a black mist filling the atmosphere with its stifling density. All that had passed during the earlier portion of the night she recollected well; and slowly—nay even methodically—did she revolve in her memory the various incidents which had so terribly marked those hours. At lengthshe reached as it were the end of her reflections—that appalling term remind- ing her that she was now alone in the room with the corpse of the murdered man! Yes — upon this tremendous truth did her thoughts settle ;—and she said within herself, * The dead body lies upon the same carpet where I am stretched. It is only a few feet distant—and if 1 could stretch out my arm I should touch it with my hand. But heaven forbid that I should seek thus to come in contact with it, even were I able to move a member ora limb. And, O horror! if the corpse itself were to extend its arm——” The wretched milliner stopped short in her re- flections, which had suddenly become too soul- harrowing to permit a continuance ;—and over her entire frame, so rigid and statue-like, a glacial shudder passed. But it was not she who moved convulsively beneath the iniluence of this shudder : no—it was the icy tremor which rolled slowly over her, with the clammy sensatiou produced by the contact of a loathsome snake. Entombed as it were in the midst of that stu- pendous darkness—stretohed helpless, motionless, Se Sra ay SS as ee THE MYSTLhIx.. and voiceless upon the carpet— with all her powers of perception, feeling, and endurance more vividly awake and more acutely susceptible than ever she had known them before—and having upon her mind the astounding conviction that within a few feet of her there was the corpse of the man whom she herself had murdered,—was not such a position enough to deprive the miserable woman of reasco and blast her intellect with the searing lightning of madness all in a moment? But, no—it was not within the range of her des- tiny that she should experience relief even in the dark mazes of mental aberration: and thus the weight of consternation crushed not at one moment —and the poignancy of anguish rent not reason’s powers at another,—although tremendous indeed was the trial to which the strength of the woman's intellect was put by those rapid and torturing alternations. How long she had lain in that position, she knew not: what hour of the night it was, she could not surmise. Nor was she able to form the least con- jecture as to the cause which held her thus spell- bound. She was not circled by cords nor chains: for, if she were, she would feel the bonds upon her person—and moreover she would be at least en- abled to move her limbs somewhat. But not a hair’s breadth could she stir them—not a hair’s breadth could she turn her head either to the right or tothe left. And what was more wondrous still— her eyes were wide open, and the lids did not wink ! The tetanos was thus complete: but whence did itarise! Wasit from some infernal spell—some diabolical incantation ?—or was it the forewarning of the awful visitation of God’s wrath upon her? These conjectures were as bewildering as their nature was soul-harrowing ;—and every instant was laden with thoughts the anguish of which was Suffi- cient to expand throughout a whole century o existence and fill it with an unceasing woe! Again and again did the miserable woman reflect that she was alone in that chamber with the corpse of the murdered man;—and again and again did she think within herself that if the same miraculonos and incomprehensible power which had reduced her to so helpless a condition of thraldom, should in. spire that dead body with the motion, the power, and the will to harm or te terrify her, she must lie still and endure that crowning horror,—for not a finger could she raise in her defence—not a sound could she articulate to summon assistance ! For the fiftieth time these excruciating reflections passed athwart the milliner’s imagination, as if a long iron wire armed with a myriad little sharp blades were dragged slowly throogh her brain, cutting its ferocious way amidst the very, quick of the vital mass :—yes—for the fiftieth time had she endared the crucifixion of those Jancinating thoughts, when a church-clock proclaimed the hour of three. Thrice spoke the iron tongue of Time—and the sound carried the cold sensation of the tomb to the heart of the milliner. She knew not why it was— but the announcement of that hour appeared preg- nant with awful omen to the mind of that mise- rable womau. More dread — more solemn—more sepulchral than before was the stillness which suc- ceeded the striking of the clock ; it was the profound tranquillity of the grave—the stupendous silence of the tomb ! (COU @ ree. eee 6 et Xt IZ] ~~——uee, @ cas. pi, _ (C DOO (CO