The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 284: what you’re looking at

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

254 | THE COURT OF LONDON had I diverged from the pathway and begun to ramble amongst the tombstones, when an impatient voice cried out, ‘ Take care of yourself; there are man-traps and spring-guns planted there!’ ‘This fearful warning, which reminded me of a danger that I had for the moment lost sight of, made me step back into the pathway; and, looking around, I saw a. man coming out of the church porch. He it was who had given me the warning; and, as I speedily recovered my self- possession, I judged by his appearance that he was a good- humoured kind of a person. Nor was I mistaken, and we speedily got into conversation together. ‘“‘ He told me that he was employed to remain there during the day to see that people passing through the churchyard did not move out of the pathway, as man-traps and spring-. guns had been planted in consequence of the late mysterious desecration of the graves in other cemeteries. Affecting to be a blunt, offhand, frank-speaking sailor, I soon won his, confidence; and he explained to me how the spring-guns were set, with their numerous wires diverging in all directions, and how the man-traps were concealed in the grass between. the graves. In fine, little suspecting that I was the monster whose hideous deeds had led to the adoption of all these precautions, the man explained everything without reserve, and, after a long conversation, I left him.’ ‘‘ During the remainder of that day I wandered about with my mind full of all I had just heard; and the longer I reflected thereupon, the more deeply could I feel the influence of the demon winding itself as it were around my heart. Evening came, and my blood was already boiling at fever-heat. A. presentiment of what I was doomed that night to do arose in my mind, filling me with anguish and loathing, and making me curse the hour when I was born. I felt that I was a mono- maniac, and I abhorred myself. I knew that a species of madness had overtaken me, imbuing me with appalling ten- dencies, but not depriving me of the faculty of deploring them. I was goaded on to insanity of action, though re- maining perfectly rational in my ideas. But as the darkness. of night deepened I became strangely and wildly agitated; and it seemed as if a strong hand seized upon me by the nape. of the neck and impelled me onward in the particular course chalked out by an infernal destiny and against which there was no possibility of resistance. Thus was I hurried back to Gomichboo “S m