The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 305: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. experiencing. His eyes sank beneath the looks of the old steward : a profound sigh—or perhaps more correctly speaking, a low Jong moan expressive of deepest inward agony, issued from his lips. “ But what was this dream, my lord ?” asked Puryis. The Duke did not immediately answer: he was evidently uncertain whether to give an explana- tion or not—until at length yielding to some irre- sistible impulse, he said, “ Listen—and [I will tell ou.” “Shall I procure your Grace some wine? or will your lordship take a glass of water?” in- quired the old steward: for Marchmont ap- peared as if he were about to suffocate. “T will help myself,’ was his response: and rising from his seat, he moved to where there was a decanter of water. Filling a tumbler with hands which trembled so that the decanter and the glass jarred against each other, he raised the refreshing beverage to his lips; and it is scarcely a figure of speech to say that the water went hissing down his parched throat as if it were pouring over hotiron. Then he resumed the chair whence he had risen: but Purvis noticed that his countenance was almost as ghastly pale, though perhaps less convulsed than at first. “Sleep was stealing upon me,” he thus com- menced his explanation in the same low deep voice as before,—“ when I felt as if gradually awaken- ing for some reason that I could not comprehend. I cannot remember now indeed I knew not at the time whether it was a sound in the room, or whether a hand touched me, or whether a voice addressed me—but certain it is that I was thus unaccountably awakened from my slumber And yet,” ejaculated the Duke, suddenly inter- rupting himself, at the same time that he started up from the chair, “it could only have been mere fancy—and nothing else! It is useless thus to enter upon the explanation of an idle dream!” “Yes—useless, my lord,” remarked Purvis, “if the subject be painful.” “Why did you say that?” demanded the Duke, turning abruptly towards the old man as he sate up in his bed. “ My lord—my lord,’ stammered Purvis, who really had meant nothing more than his words had conveyed; “I—I—beg your Grace’s pardon— but—but—TI really-———” “Well, well,” interrupted the Duke; “ you see that all these things naturally render me nervous and excited I mean that those mysterious in- cidents which occurred ere we went to bed : “They naturally made a certain impression, my lord,” replied the steward, “For myself, I candidly confess that I was thinking of them until the very moment that sleep came upon my eyes.” “You said nothing about it to the servants, Purvis ?” asked the Duke quickly. “Certainly not, my lord: it was your Grace’s order to the contrary.” “To be sure! It were needless to frighten them :’—and the Duke lingered in the steward’s chamber with every appearance of one who was afraid to return to his own. “About this dream of mine!” he continued, after a pause, during which he first sate down—then rose up—and te ane ee OAL 299 then sate down again, in a neryous restless manner: “ about this dream of mine, Purvis I haye a great mind to go on telling you what it was.” But Marchmont once more stopped short: he evidently did not want to continue on the same topic—and yet his mind was irresistibly led by some strong influence to hover around it, painful though it were. “1 was telling you that I had fallen asleep, when something awoke me. The night-lamp was burning as usual in the room—and [ looked about me, but lsaw nothing. The lamp was visibly grow- ing fainter and fainter—there was a wax-candle on the night-table upon one side of the bed—and I lighted it : but as I turned round, I beheld on the other side what seemed to me to be the tall form of a man enveloped in a cloak, and holding the cloak in such a way up to his countenance as to veil it completely from my view.” Here the Duke again stopped short,—leaving Purvis in a species of awful suspense. ** And what did your Grace do?” he at length asked as the Duke continued silent. “To confess the truth, Purvis,” was the response, “IT was seized—or rather fancied I was for of course it was all a dream but it appeared to me in this dream that I was seized with so sudden a terror I lay lke one paralyzed. It was that sort of petrifaction of the frame, though the senses were all keenly alive, which takes possession of one when under the influence of a nightmare. Then that dark shape seemed to bend down over me Is it not extraordinary, Purvis? Butif I were to tell you all, you would agree with me that it cannot be anything else than mere fancy ?” But the Duke of Marchmont was still in such a state of trembling nervousness that his condition, both physical and mental, proved how impossible it was to beguile himself into the belief that it was a dream: for again he rose from his seat— again he paced to and fro in an agitated manner— and then he sate down once more. “ A form bent, I say,” he continued, still irre- sistibly impelled to hover around the subject, like a moth fluttering about a candle,—“it bent over me———of course in my dream, you understand P —and it spoke a few words in such a deep un- earthly voice that the blood ran cold in my veins No matter what it said—I forget—lI did not hear—I could not for worlds repeat it! Per: dition seize upon me! I am losing my senses !” The Duke stamped his foot violently upon the floor as he gave vent to that imprecation: and again springing up from the chair, he paced ner- vously to and fro. ‘Lhe old steward was seriously alarmed: for he began to suspect that his master’s intellects had received a shock and were somewhat deranged. He had not failed to notice the extra- ordinary and incongruous expressions which hed fallen from his lips in regard to the words breathed in his ear by the tall cloaked form that either in imagination or in reality had bent over him. And now too Marchmont’s face was ghastly pale and as conyulsed as it was when he first entered the chamber; and the old steward tremblingly asked whether he should arouse the household and send off for medical assistance ? “Not for worlds!” ejaculated the Duke, with strange vehemence: then he immediately added, iGboOo a sg ss RS ST je LS KSHGOIM