The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 330: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. long borne the title of Duchess of Marchmont. All vital tint seemed to have fied from that coun- tenance: even the very lips were of marble pale- ness. Its expression was 60 » 60 care-worn, so woe-begone, that even if she herself had been criminal it would have excited pity: but innocent in every respect as they knew her to be, it filled their hearte with anguish to look upon the face of that afilicted lady. The clergyman—sa venerable man—bowed to the twins with the profoundest respect, and contemplated them with a mournful interest: for he had known their parentse—and he was indebted to their father for the incumbency which be held. The physician likewise saluted the young Duke of Marchmont and Lady Christina Vivian: but the dying nobleman covered bis face with his thin wan hands, and audibly. Lavinia tried to speak—but she could not: her voice was choked with the intensity of her feel- ings: yet her eyes eloquently proclaimed the gratitude she experieneed for this visit of pardon which they paid to her perishing husband. As for that man himeclf—he also tried to give utter- ance to some words; and he essayed likewise to raise himself up in the couch: bat the power of speech seemed to have gone from his palsied throat, and that of motion from his tranced limbs. Another attempt on Lavinia’s part to say something to the young pair, proved ineffectual : for the first sounds of the syllables that wavered on her lips, died away in a spasm of intensest agony which excruciated her whole frame. She burst into tears: and seizing the hand of each of the twine, she pressed them by turns to her lips. Christina threw her arms round Lavinie’s neck and -wept passionately upon her bosom: while Chris- tian tremulously murmured, “We are here to aesure your husband of forgiveness!” “ Oh, thie is more than I could have expected !” moaned the dying nobleman, now finding utfter- ance for a few broken sentences. “I who have been so wicked—so deeply stained with guilt —I who deprived your father of his life—Ob, Chris- tian !— Christina !--i¢ is more than I ought to have hoped!—But, my God! even now that you are here, I cannot look you in the face |” And again did the wretched man cover his countenance with his hands. “If your penitence be siocere-——es I trast and hope and believe it is,” eaid Christian, in a soft voice, “receive the assurance of my pardon—end thas of my sister |” * Can you forgive me? is it possible that you ean forgive me?’ asked the dying man. “Ob, what hearte do you both possess! It must be a paradise to have such hearts as yours: but mine cannot understand them! Yee, Christian—my penitence is sincere. O God! with such remorse as thie, how can there be otherwise than con- trition ? My confession is made: you ere Duke of Marchmont. I need not ask that you and your amiable sister will be kind to my poor wife———” “Think not of me, Hugh!” gasped forth the afflicted Lavinia. “I shall not long survive you. I feel it here f'~and with an expressiun of inef- fable anguieh on her countenance, she pressed her hand upor her heart. “ Christian, yoa have forgiven me,” continued the dying nobleman, in a hollow voice; and at the 319 same time his equally hollow eyes were tarned towards our hero; “and such generosity on your part will experience its reward. The same with Christina. Oh, if I dared bless you-——But no, no! blessings from my lipe———” “ Remember,” said Christian, “that a Redeemer died to save us from the consequences of our sins; and for our blessed Saviour’s sake the mercy of God is illimiteble !” “Ob, these are words of solace, coming from your lips!” murmured the dying man: and he made a movement as if he would take the hand of our young hero. “It is a sign of forgivences which from my heart I afford you!” said Christian: and he at once gave his hand to the perishing penitent. At the same moment a change came suddenly and visibly over the countenance of the latter: its paleness grew corpse-like—the eyes appeared to sink deeper into their sockete—some words to which he could not give audible utterance, wavered upon his lips: then came a low moan, followed by @ gasp~and next by s strong spasm, which seemed to thrill painfully through the penitent’s form— and then all was over ! There was e profound and eolemn silence for the space of several moments; but Lavinia appeared uncertain relative to the supreme fact. She gased with a dismay—half qild, half awe-felt—upon the countenance of her hasband: then she swept her looks around upon those who stood with her by the eide of the couch; and she read in their faces the trath to which she had striven to close her convic- tions. A piercing cry buret from her lips; and whether she fell forward or threw herself upon the corpese, was not apparent: but there she lay, mo- tionless as he upon whose form her head rested. For several instants those who beheld the unfor- tunate Lavinia, fancied that she was abandoning herself to a profound and absorbing woe which had supervened on that sudden access of wild despair: bus as she moved not, and as not so much as even a sob or a sigh was wafted to their ears, they grow alarmed. They raised her: there was a emall pool of blood on the counterpane at the epos where her mouth had rested; and the physician pronoanesd her to be a corpee. Deeply, deeply affected were the twins, as they suffered themeecives to be led forth from that cham- ber of death. They rejoined the Queen, to whom they communicated the details of the sad scene they had witnessed; end Indora mournfully re- marked that it were better for Lavinia to have died thus, than to have lived to deplore a husband who was unworthy of her lamentation. Her Majesty and the twins retired to their respective chambers to rest for a few hours: but sleep closed not the eyes of either of them. The man who had eo long borne the title of the Duke of Marchmont, was now no more: he had passed beyond that sphere in which his crimes would have rendered bim amenable to human lawe—he had gone to that other world; in which he was to appear in the presence of a more dread tribunal. But hie wife, who hed been an angel on earth, bad gune at the same time to be an angel in heaven ; and it was a touching made by the twins to each other, thet the hapless Lavinia had taken that eternal flight at sash a moment to intereede at the footstool of eternal grace for the COUMIUC DOOKX