The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 297: what you’re looking at

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386 THWE MYSTERIES OF THY COURT. thankfulness to heaven for the manner in which she had escaped from the hideous peril. “Yes,” continued Sagoonab, displaying the leathern case with a species of frenzy, “ it was this that brought the deadly reptile hither. Oh! would that it had darted its coils around my arm and plunged its fangs into my flesh !—what re- morse would have now been spared me! Wretch —wretch that I have been! But I swear to you, lady, that such is now my eelf-loathing—+so intense is the abhorrence with which I now regard my- eelf—so sick and wearied am I of life, that were the envenomed reptile still within this case, I would plunge in my hand! Thus, thud would I plunge it in !—and if the serpent were torpid, I would excite it into its fullest and most terrible vitality I would court ite sting—and I would be thankfal that I had the power so soon to . h yes As she thus spoke with impassioned and almost frenzied vehemency, Sagoonah tore open the lap- ping cover of the case, and thrust in her hand. It was no mere stage-performance to produce an effect : it was the action of one who was labouring under morbid feelings most acately excited. And as she spoke of stirring up the reptile from ita torpor, she passionately ground her hand down as it were into the case: she imitated what she would have done in the circumstanees which she was sup- posing. Her white teeth gleamed betwixt the part- ing vermilion of her thin well-cut lips: her eyes sparkled with unnataral fires. The twins thought she was going mad. Indora herself was about to use her authority and command her to be tranquil, All of a sudden Sagoonah drew forth her hand * from the case, which she immediately dropped ; and then for an instant she contemplated the back of that hand with the most earnest scrutiny. She was seen to reel slightly : and then a cry as if of wild, half-frensied, terrible joy thrilled from her lips. *Ob, I comprehend it!” she exclaimed, sinking upon an ottoman ; “ and death is coming to me at last! Lady, you are avenged—and my contem- plated crime has brought its own punishment ! Oh, I am dying !—the deadly poison is even now circu- lating in my veins! That case !—touch it not in- side! Consign it to the fire—let it be consumed at once '—there is death within! The serpent has left one of its venomed fangs there !” A horrible light now flashed in unto the brains of the Queen and the twins; and with a frightful clearness did they comprehend the ayah’s meaning. Cries burst from their lips, as with one accord they sprang towards her. Indora lifted the ayah’s hand ; and a slight puncture—or rather scarcely percep- tible scratch, from which a drop of blood had oozed forth—was visible upon the back of that hand. “Oh! what can we do to save her?’ cried Christina and her brother, as it were in the same breath. “ No earthly power can save her !”” answered the Queen solemnly: “she must perish! O Sagoo- neh! had you lived I could not have forgiven you: but now that death has fastened upon you, I as- gare you of my pardon !” The light of an unspeakable joy animated the dying ayah’s countenance; and seising with her unwounded hand one of the hands of her mistress, she pressed it fervently to her lips. “ May heaven’s choicest blessings, lady, alight upon your head!” she exclaimed; “and may you yet be happy! Oh! something will yet arise to accomplish this happiness for you !—it is impossi- ble that one so good and genervus should be aban- doned by heaven! Ah! what balm has your words poured into my heart! I shall now welcome death—for I have received your pardon! The poison is circulating in my blood: I feel it—Oh, I feel it! A film comes over my eyes! Place— place me upon the sofa!” The dying ayah’s wish was at once complied with :—again she took the hand of her mistress and pressed it to her lips. From those lips the vermilion, habitually s0 vivid, was dying away ; and the brilliant lustre of her eyes was yielding to the glaze of death. “ Will you pray, Sagoonah ?” asked the Queen: and kneeling down by the side of the sofa, she began reciting a prayer in her own native len- age. The twins stood by, looking on with feelings of in- describable awe—Christina clinging to her brother, and he sustaining her with his arm thrown round her waist. For some minutes Sagoonah continued to repeat the prayer which the Queen was uttering: but the voice of the ayah gradually grew lower and feebler—until it sank altogether. The guilty but penitent Sagoonah was no more! CHAPTER CXL. MADAMN ANGELIQUE AGAIN. Iv was the evening of the next day; and Sir Fre derick Latham rode forth on horseback from his palatial mansion at Balham Hill. Completely happy now was the great City merchant in the confidence which subsisted between himself and his wife, the beautiful Anastatia; and that confidence had begun to engender love on both sides. Sir Frederick felt that he could not lavish too many proofs of his regard upon the wife whom he had so cruelly suspected: while she on her part was touched by the altered demeanour of her husband towards her. She comprehended that certain naturally generous feelings, which hed long re- mained latent in the soul of a man entirely ab- sorbed in worldly pursuits, had now been by acci- dental circumstances awakened; and though she was unselfish, yet as a woman she did her best te encourage them. Thus there was for this couple every prospect of a more real domestic happiness than they had ever before known; and Sir Frede- rick Latham could not altogether regret the cir- cumstances which, though painful at the time, hed given rise to this improved epoch in his wedded life. It was a beautiful evening in the month of Octo- ber: all the charms of a late autumn were pro- longed; and the trees retained an unusual ver- dure for that season of the year. Sir Frederick and Anastatia had dined earlier than usual, im order that her ladyship might pay a visit to her mother, who continued to be somewhat indisposed; while the merchant himeelf, taking advantage of the loveliness of the evening, went forth for a ride on horseback. It happened that he was anattended GORMGOOOKS (CO “fl