The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 77: what you’re looking at

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

THE SUPPER DEVOURER 59 spend the entire evening away from home, and not return till a latehour. That he will visit his private suite of apart- ments to-night is therefore by no means probable, and when to-morrow comes it is to be hoped that the agonies of thirst, the pangs of hunger, and the exhausting efforts of maddened attempts to escape will have consummated the work of death. But when once the deed is done and the wretch shall be no more, my uncle must adopt some means to dispose of the corpse. It will be too late then for him to refuse to assent to the act or become an accessory to its perpetration, and the only thing for him to consider will be the best means of making away with all evidences of the occurrence.” In this strain did Ernestina continue to weigh the results of her vengeance in respect to the Hangman, and gradually the desire began to arise in her mind to satisfy herself that this vengeance was proceeding according to her hopes and expectations. Perhaps the object of her inveterate hatred was already dead? Who could tell how long or how short a period it might take to send a man out of existence by such a process as that? It was not so much the hunger and thirst. Those, she knew full well, might be endured for days and days; but it was the terrible nature of the captivity, the strange and horrible restriction of the person, the fearful crampings of all the limbs, and the wearing, tearing, heart- breaking efforts which a strong man was sure to make in his utter desperation to release himself, — these constituted the exhausting powers that should lead to speedy dissolu- tion. Likely enough, then, did she deem it, that he had already ceased to exist; and the frightful outrage she had experienced made her feel a ferocious desire to gratify her vindictive rage with a view of the cold, inanimate corpse _ of him who had so terribly abused her. Yes, and for the same reason, too, if he were not yet dead, did her revengeful hate prompt her to go and feast her eyes upon the excruciations, the agonies, and the tortures which the wretch must be suffering. Thus, in either case, whether he were dead or alive, did the implacability and dark ferocity of her revenge urge her to pay a visit to the room where she had left her victim. Yielding to the influence of this morbid feeling, Lady Ernes- tina Dysart rose from the couch, and began to put on some of her clothing. She felt refreshed by the hours of tranquil (C(O) nn) (C 0)(0)() KS { | in