The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 317: what you’re looking at

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

EN THE NYSTERIES OF THE COURT, hope, and other strong feelings as well as dark passions concentrated all their power! «Here is a heavy purse, full of golden guineas,” said Madame Angelique: and she passed the purse over the fence. If the look which Sagoonah had just bent upon her was indescribable,—equally impossible of de- scription was the air of blended hauteur, disgust, and indignation with which Sagoonah took that purse and tossed it into the field where Madame Angelique was standing. At the same time her eyes sent forth vivid fires, and her ivory teeth glistened between the thin scarlet lips. “‘No—not for a bribe!’ said Sagoonah, in a yoice expressive of scorn and loathing: “but for that other reason yes, yes!” Madame Angelique gazed upon her with a sensation of terror—a sort of feeling as if she shuddered lest the Hindoo woman was not what she seemed, but that all in an instant she might burst forth into another form, and perhaps with a savage yell spring upon her in the shape of a ticress, or in the twinkling of an eye twist the huge coils of a snake around her so dread was the fascination, so wildly strange yet likewise awe- inspiring the expression of Sagoonah’s eyes! “Go!” said the ayah. “Ido not ask why you have prompted me to this deed—nor who first of all urged you on to prompt me. Go—it shall be done: and perhaps to-morrow the intelligence will reach your ears that this house’’—and she pointed towards it—“has become the scene of a fearful deed.” With these words the ayah turned abruptly away from the fence; and Madame Angelique, picking up the indignantly discarded purse, be- took herself across the field towards the main road. It was night—and Christina Ashton could not sleep. The weather was exceedingly sultry—in- deed most oppressively so: she had been slightly indisposed the whole day—she was restless, uneasy, and feverish. It was twelve o’clock—and she vainly endeavoured to close her eyes. It may be easily supposed that her thoughts were actively engaged: for when are the thoughts ever more active than while the head is pressing a sleepless pillow? . She knew that Zoe had taken her de- parture from London: a paragraph amongst the fashionable intelligence in a morning newspaper had told her this much. ‘Too well, too well could poor Christina conjecture the cause of her amiable friend’s prolonged indisposition; and bitterly, bit- terly at times did she blame herself for having been more or less mixed up with that cause. And yet, as the reader knows full well, she was innocent :—the snows on the hichest peaks of the Alpine mountains were not purer than Christina’s thoughts! She could not sleep: and it was twelve o’clock. Silence prevailed throughout the habitation: silence was outside too—for the air was stagnant in its heayiness, and not a single leaf in the garden was ruffled. But presently that silence which reigned inside the dwelling, was broken—no, not broken—gently, and slightly, and almost imper- ceptibly intruded upon by the softest sound of a step upon the stair. Yet Christina heard it; and with suspended breath she listened, Again she heard it; and the thought flashed to her mind that at nc an a a OPS Ka oF: 311 Sagoonah was violating the pledge she had given not to descend again at night to study the huge files of the Times. “This is wrong of Sagoonah,” said Christina to herself: “it is: doubly wrong—in the first place because no one ought to be moving about the house with a candle at this time of night—and secondly because she herself admitted that for some par- ticular reason the Princess would be angry with her if she looked into those files.” Having thus mused to herself, Christina sate up in bed and again listened. All was profoundly silent; and with suspended breath did our young heroine continue to await the slightest, faintest sound that might next fall upon her ear. And it came: it was another footstep—so light, so airy, indeed so barely perceptible, that a doubt even lingered in Christina’s mind whether she had caught it. Still she was resolved to assure herself on the point—but yet to do so in-such a way that in case of being mistaken, she herself might not incur the risk of disturbing any other sleeper. It was therefore with the utmost caution she rose and opened the door—a caution so great that neither the turning of the handle ner the moving of the door upon its hinges raised asound half so audible as the footstep she had heard. But, Ah! as she looked forth upon the landing, she beheld a light glimmering from the Princess’s chamber, the door of which evidently stood open. Now the first thought that struck her was that Indora had been seized with indisposition: and yet she heard no sounds of voices—no one moving in the chamber of her Highness. She hastened along the passage,—her naked feet raising not the slightest sound: but yet her night-dress swept for an instant against the wall—and the next moment Sagoonah issued forth from the chamber of the Princess. She had alght in one hand—and she appeared as if she had just thrust something with the other amidst the folds of her dress; for she was apparelled in her day-costume. An ejacula- tion was about to issue from Christina’s ips—an anxious inquiry whether the Princess was indis- posed ?—when Sagoonah made her a vehement sign to hold her peace; and Christina was now .struck by the strange expression of the ayah’s countenance and the fearful light that was burning in her eyes. An unknown terror for an instant seized upon the young maiden,—transfixing, petri- fying her. During this momentary interval Sa- goonah noiselessly closed the door of the Princess’s chamber; and then making a sign for Christina to retreat into her own, she followed her thither. Closing the door with an unabated caution, Sagoonah placed her candle upon the drawers; and taking Christina’s hand, made her sit down by her side upon an ottoman which was at the foot of the bed: for the chamber which our heroine occupied was as elegantly and as sumptuously furnished as all the rest. “You are surprised, Miss Ashton,” said Sa- goonah, in a low whispering voice, but with an air of perfect calmness, contrasting strangely with the sinister expression her countenance had worn a few moments back,—“you are surprised, Miss Ashton, to have thus found me in the chamber of my mistress.” “T cannot say that I am stili surprised,” re- sponded Christina; “because I have no doubt you (C(O) 0)(0)(0) AMUCG SHn(EO)