The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 80: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. 69 at once bade her banish all alarm from her mind, “Oh! about some dreadful things that have for that she was where she would be taken care of | been discovered up in London yonder—a house well: she then showed her that her money and her trinkets were safe. But the stranger-woman de- mandced the sealed packet which she had had about her person; and then the mistress of the cottage stated what Mr. Redoliffe had bidden her announce: namely, that it was taken care of on her behalf by the gentleman who had picked her up in the road, and that he wished to have some conversation with her on the subject. The atranger-woman demanded who the gentleman was—but the mistress of the cottage, acoustomed to be very discreet in all that regarded her occa- sional lodger, gave some evasive response, which only had the effect of increasing the stranger's apprehensions. She vowed that she must depart that instant—that she had a long journey to per- form, and important business on hand—that she could not therefore wait. The elderly female, fancying that her unfortunate guest was half bereft of reason, entteated her to remain: but nothing could induce her—and she took her precipitate departure, forcing upon her hostess a few shillings in payment of a pair of shoes which the latter in- sisted upon her taking as substitutes for her own worn-out ones. Thus, when the surgeon arrived, the woman who was to have been his patient had taken her departure. “There is something exceedingly mysterious in all this,” said Mr. Redcliffe. “That woman is no unfortunate idiot, as I had at first supposed: she must be conscious of some misdeed that she has fled thus precipitately. Did she give you no ex- planation of how she came to sink down upon the road ?” “She said something about exhaustion,” was the reply given by the mistress of the cottage; “but she would not tarry to eat so much as a morsel of bread: she merely took a cup of milk—and when I offered to put some food into a little basket for her, she did not appear to listen: she seemed all in a flurry, as if afraid of something, so that I myself thought she could not be altogether 4 ht.” “And the surgeon?” said Mr. Redcliffe, in- quiringiy. “ He rode across on his pony; and on finding that the woman had gone, he grumbled a little— until I assured him that there was a gentleman here who would pay him handsomely. He then went away better pleased. But my husband is not come back from the village yet; and I can’t think what detains him.” Scarcely had the woman thus spoken, when the outer door of the cottage was heard to yield to the entrance of some one; and this proved to be the husband on whose account she had been getting anxious. “Why, what has detained you?” she asked. “You never yet have been given to tippling at the house 7 “And I’m not going to do so now, wife,” he replied. “But in the first place there’s so thick a mist one can hardly see a yard in front of one; and thon Smithers the carrier had just arrived, and he had brought with him some handbills from Guildford, which we all got reading at the bar of the Blue Lion.” @ And what are the handbills about ?” where it’s supposed three or four people have been murdered at different times, and buried with quick- lime ina pit. And eo theso bills are to offer a hundred pounds’ reward to any body who gives the people into custody—what’s their names again P Oh, here it is in large print—Jofin Smedley and his wife Barbara—or fifty pounds for either of them separate.” “Let's look,” said the woman: and she pro- ceeded to read one of the handbills which her hus- band had brought with him. “ Well now, this is odd !”” she ejaculated in a voice of mingled wonder and terror: “ why, the description of the woman— dear me! x is the very same! Tall—dark— fine eyes—good teeth—age about three or four and thirty ——” Here the woman’s ejaculations were suddenly interrupted by the appearance of Mr. Redcliffe. The colloquy between the husband and wife had taken place in the passage; and the door of Mr Redcliffe’s parlour stood ajar. He could not there- fore help overhearing what thus passed; and when the conversation took the turn just described, he issued forth, inquiring, “Where are these hand- bills ?” One was immediately given to him: he hastily scanned its contents ; and not a doubé rested in his mind that the woman who had been the object of so much kind attention on his part, was pro- claimed as a murderess. The old man of the cot- tage—who, be it recollected, had not seen the woman at all—was stricken with dismay on learn- ing what sort of a character had been within the walls of his dwelling; and he was by no means sorry to find that her stay had been comparatively so brief. “It were madness,” said Mr. Redcliffe, after a few moments’ reflection, “ to think of overtaking her through this dense fog. Besides, she has got at least an hour and a half’s start of us; and then, as she has money too, she will find means of conveyance. My good friends,” added Mr. Red- cliffe, “as you are well aware that I have no in- clination to be talked about, and do not want my name mentioned, it would be quite as well if nothing were said about the vile woman having been in your cottage. The cause of justice will not suffer on that acoount: for with this distribu- tion of handbills all over the country, and with the other means which the police are doubtless taking for the detection of herself and her husband, those wretches cannot possibly escape,” The cottager and his wife, who were accustomed to pay implicit obejience to Mr. Redeliffe, pro- mised to be silent in respect to the subject he had named; and when he took his departure at an early bour on the following morning, he rewarded them with even more than his accustomed liberality. Bat in respect to the paper which had fallen into his possession, what could he think? That its writer had been murdered, and that he was one of the victims to whom the contents of the handbill so terribly pointed. Yes—this was the natural though fearful conjecture which sug- gested itself to Mr. Redcliffe’s mind: but he re- solved to set inquiries on foot in order to ascertain if any certain clue could possibly be discovered to the fate of the writer of that letter. ° CONIC OOO <S co