The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 232: what you’re looking at

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encje’s, ghbeenae. What if be were to hide himself for a few hours,--until the. next night eyen—in ane of the unqocupied apartments of the spacious dwelling? Wore he discovered, Ernestina muat be appealed to in order to decide how the intruder was.to, be dispesed of; aud ahe dared not deal harshly wish him. QOn.the contzary, he would be safe beneath her protection. But as to food? He oould very well wait four-and-twenty hours ina fasting gondition when his personal se- curity. was concerned; aid at all eventa it would be better to incur any risk.or privation within the house than stand, the chance of. encauntering Mr, Lawrence Sampson's myrmidons outside the threshojd, f . . Rapid as thought alone can travel, did these re- fleesiens sweep throagh the brain of Daniel Coffin as he stood at the dining-roem door; loolaing forth inte the hall. There was also something in the adventure that, pleased hin; and his resolve was aeoh taken accordingly. Hastily ascending the great marble staircase, he reached the landing on the first storey, and opened the nearest door. It led into the Cfimson Draning-room which has hean mentioned in preceding chapters. The fire was smouldering in the grate—two wax candies were burning upon the mantel-pieco—and a tray, eohntaining a couple of decanters of wine and a dish of biscuite, stood upon she table. This litéle refreshment had heen served tp for Mrs. Owen when she ealled upon the Marquis that afternoon; and the tray had not been removed. The Hangman was well pleased at the sight thereof;-and he speedily poured at least a pint of .aherry down his capacioys throat. This was so much td his taste, tliat he lost re time in paying his respects with equal devotion to the Port; aud in a few minutes the decanters were completely drained. He then filled one of his aniple pockets ‘with the greater portion of the biscuits; and having thns s¢lf-apprepriated the provender, he proceeded to exaniine the room with more atten- tion than at first. To remain concealed here was hopeless. The domestics, ere they retired for the night, would come to put but the fire and extinguish the can- dles. Whither should ke go? Scarcely had he aeked himself this question, when his eyes settled upon a door opposite to the one by which he had entered. He advanced to try it, bat found it locked. This was no partitdlarly formidable ob- stacle to Mr. Danie! Coffin. He felt in his pooket «drew forth a bunch of skeleton keys—and speedily opened the door. Taking one of the wax- tapers from the mantel, he passed into the adjoit- ing room: and now, as the reader will no doubt nave already understood, the Hangman had en- tered the first of that mysterious suite of apart- ments which Venetia Trelawney was l¢d to ex- plore on the evenlog of her visit to Leveson Having hastily glanced around the room, which we have previously described as smal! but lnxuri- ously furnished, the Hangman observed that there were wax-tapers upon the mantel, He accordingly lighted one of them, and then took back the one which he carried in his hand into the Crimson Dra This he did to prevent ite being tnissed: and having restored it fo {ts place, he re- traced his way into the other apartment, carefully THE MYSTERIES OF THE COUBT. 219 locking himeelf ia by means of the skeleton key that had afforded him: ingress. He uow examined this room with admiration and delight, muttering to himeelf a wish that he was the owner of that little paradise. Having attentivaly surveyed the sofas ranged round the walis, the vases of flowers, and the various articles of furnitate, his eyes were uplifted towartis the allver latnp that was suspended to the oeiling, but which was not burning now. After contemplating it for about a minute, he stood upon a chair to examine it more closely ;-— and thusconvincing himeelf that i¢ was real silver, he muttered, “Old Jeremy would give me a pretty penay for this! Well, I don’t think I need go away empty-handed when I do take my departure.” Grithly amiling at thie pleasant conceit, dtd ready reganiing the silver lamp as his own, Mr. Dahiel Ceffin descended from the chair-— took a taper from the mantel—and passed into the aijvining room. This was smaller but more ldstriously fir- nished than the one he had just left; and instead of dofes, it contained a number of large and massive arm-ehaire, each provided with a ctiehion of in- mange sise, But there waé no choice collection of fruits, sweets, and wines now upon the table—nor was the lamp with the ground-giass giobe now lighted ~as was the case when we introduced Vene- tia Trelawney to this apartment. Wathout pauvsing many uiiiutes, Danidl Coffin pranesded to open the door which feed him; and, still Holding the taper in his hand, ho etitered ‘the gallery of pictures and sculptures, At firet he was not inelined to pay mueh attention t¢ thees works of art: but their. subjects speedily altered his mood, turning his indifferenes into eager curiesity, wonder, and sensual delight. We have already in a prévions chapter depicted a few of the statuaty groupe and glanced at one of the pictures: but we mast now ebserve that there were other groups and other pie- turés the flagrant in of which would even have brought « biash to the cheeks of the inmates of a brothel, Heem the entrance of this gallery to the further extremity, the works of aft became sud- ‘Sossively more and icre indélieate, ad if the whole purpose ef the arrangement were gradially te lead on the imagination from the first petty shock, through all the phases of enhancing allutemetit, inte the crowning grosences of the micet nadé and undis- giuseti! lascivioumess. “ Well, ‘pon my soul, these noblemen are precious rum fellowa to have such scenes as thesé in their houses,” thought Daniel Coffin to hishee!f, as with increasing amazement he passed along the gallerp ‘* By goles! it gets werse and worse! If any body had told me he'd seett such a pladd in & nobleman’s mansion, I shouldh’t have believed him. And now that I retollect, this Marquis of Leveson is alfvaya holding forth isi the House of Lords about the bad morals of the lower orders and the deducraticn of the Sabbath! Well, some men are hypocrites rank impostors too! What statues—what paintings! The farther I adyance, the more I seem to learn in the lessons of indecency. I suppose the Marquis brings his ladies here sometimes. I wender whether his niece Ernestina has ever set foot in this gallery, If she has, she can’t be much better than she should be: and I dare say she’s not too. In fact, I suppose the Prince was enticed to Beechey Manor that night to be captivated by her charms. But Dysart ke his rea) motive snug enough, whatever it was. W COUMIC NOG) SS CO