The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 346: what you’re looking at

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

— rm wee © oe ee eee SS weet we THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. tempted to turn round towards the speaker. But no!—she was bound hand and foot by some invisible and unknown spell—enchained by some stupendous and indomitable influence—turned into a statue so far as her physical being was concerned, and ani- mated with only just a sufficiency of the spiritual essence to give her a dim and twilight idea of her own condition. Still was her appreciation of this condition too in- distinct, too vague, and too obscure to produce any poignant feeling. Sensation she had, it was true— but so lulled, so steeped in a mystic lethargy, so dull, numb, and sluggish, that it had not sufficient vita- lity for any keenness of reflection, whether painful or otherwise. Gradually the idea began to become strengthened m Ariadne’s mind relative to the presence of some one near her; and at length it seemed as if an inspi- ration dawned in unto her soul, whispering the ' mame of Douglas Huntingdon. Then she appeared ' to acquire a knowledge that there was such a person m= ea => a a me eee we = oe as he in the world; but how or when she had known him before, she had no distinct comprehension. She heard him breathing syllables of sorrow near her; and then she felt him take her hand in hisown. A pulse seemed to thrill through her entire frame at that contact,—yees, thrill even pleasurably, as if it were the touch of life giving back animation into one on whom death sat heavy and cold: but yet that thrill was only faint and feeble—and it imparted ' Mot complete vitality nor broke the spell that en- ' tranced the maiden. She felt her hand clasped in that of Huntingdon; and she felt, too, by the touch that dts hand burnt with the fever-heat of excitement, and that Aer own was as cold as ice. She longed—Oh! how she longed * to returg the pressure which she felt: for now a atrange, vague, and ill perception of the real trath of ber condition stole into her mind, and made her feel a desire to make known the fact that she - was indeed alive! But not in the alightest—not in oOo =>» the faintest—not in the remotest degree could she returo that pressure: not a muscie could she move —not a nerve quivered in response to her will. The faintest breeze has more power to shake the state- liest tree, than her volition could exercise over her own faculties of motion. Still as death—motionless as a statue, she lay—with a gentle glimmering of the spark of iife that was just conscious of its own existence, but could not make this existence known to another. And now therefore arose in her mind the conviction that she breathed not though she - jived—and on the other hand, that she was not dead ' though animation was all but utterly suspended. A still brighter clearness shed ite influence upon her mind—that mind which thus, after having first awakened as it were in the midst of a vast hall where a single lamp barnt dimly in the midst of the blackness, now felt as if additional lamps were being lighted up one by one so as to set forth by these slow degrees some fresh features of the place. She heard those words to which the Baronet gave utterance with so mach feeling—*“ J cannot bear to look upon that inanimate countenance which was 80 lovely in ite animation!" Yes—she heard, she un- ' derstood these words: she even perceived the im- passioned vibration of tone which characterised them-—the amount of anguish which they ex- , Pressed! And sgain did she experience a thrill - -p€ the pulse through her entire frame—but a thrill 2 SEE © FEY Vga Ep wi Ce A that was felt not by him who held her hand and who believed it was the hand of the dead. Thea this hand of hers was quitted by that of the Baro- -_ net: the contact had ceased—the fevered flesh and the marble-cold flesh touched each other no more — -—and instead of the thrill of the vibrating pulse, it was an ice chill that struck to the very core of - the maiden’s heart! Bat now she felt—intuitively, instinctively felt | —that Sir Douglas Huntingdon was gazing upon her. Her eyelids were closed, as we have already sald; but it was in looking upward as it were from . the mind itself—by the exertion, so to speak, of an | inner sense of vision—that she thus felt that he was looking upon her. She could even understand the look—she could comprehend its nature—lin- gering, longing, sad, and mournfol, Bat, O God! why did she not return it?—just heaven! why could she not? She heard the door close: and now she knew that _ she was alone. The silence suddenly struck her as being awful, awfal in the extreme: and then — too, at the same instant, a more horrible clearness | sprang up in her mind—a fearful light flaming up — in her soul! In a word, she understood all ina moment,—thas she was in a species of trance—a | syncope—aad that she was believed to be dead! Dead !—great heaven, what awful thoughts now sprang up in her imagination! Was the hand of |; death in reality upon her?—was she dyiog?— would she soon be really dead? Death! its biteer- ness was not past—its sting was there—and the grave perhaps would soon assert its victory. But to die—Oh! to die while she felt that she was so young—for her thoughts were now every instant becoming more vividly clear and more keenly per- oeptive,—to die so young, it was terrible, terribie |! Then her brother, too—for she now remembered him and thought of him—yes, his image suddenly sprang up clearly and tangibly as it were before her,—this well beloved brother, what would de think, what would he say when he heard that she had died thus prematurely, thus suddenly? But no—she could not die—she must not dieyet! In- nocent, stainless of crime—aye, even immaculate though she were in mind as well as ia body—she was not prepared to die! She would move her limbs—she would turn round on that couch—she would raise herself up—and she would exhibit all the powers of fall, living, breathing, moving vital- ity! Alas! vain, vain were the thoughts — vain the aspirations—vain the endeavours: so far from stirring hand or foot, she could not even move a muscle of her countenance—nor unclose an eyelid —nort feel her lips quiver with the breath of life! We said that her mind had now a horrible clear- ness: and such indeed it was. For her thoughts began to flow in still more frightful and hideous channels—depicting all the paraphernalia of death ~—the laying out of the corpse (in Aer case perhaps & sceming corpse)—the putting on of the raiment of the dead—the enclosing in the shell—the screwing down of the lid of the coffin—the consignment to the grave—and the shovelling in of the damp and wormy. clay! Heavens! as all these harrowing thoughts swept through the brain of the poor young girl, she endured an agony of agonies inef- fable for human language—an agony all the more agonising because endured by one whose form was motionless and could not bend or yield as it were nee =< epithe (ptr a@aw @e~- iin CO OOO Ss CO