The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 371: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. trary, death might be close at hand: the agent of destruction might be noiselessly insinuating itself towards herself or her much-loved benefactress. * Do not be alarmed, my dear friend,” said the Princess, penetrating what was thus passing in the mind of our heroine: “you may rest assured that the instinct of the snake-charmer cannot fail him —especially one who in his time was so famous as this Hindoo emissary. You would be astonished to behold those snake-charmers in my own native land. ‘They not merely play with the deadly cobra: they irritate and enrage the reptile—but all the while being careful that the peculiar music is sustained; for if the flow of the melody which constitutes the charm for the serpent and the talisman of the charmer’s safety, were to cease, that instant were death! There are European travellers and writers who have endeavoured to prove that the poisonous fangs have been torn from the mouth of the cobra before the snake-charmer will venture to play with it; and that therefore the feat resolves itself into a mere piece of jugglery which could be as well performed with the most innocuous of reptiles. But those writers ‘err: for cases have come within mine own expe- rience—or rather within my own knowledge— where men have been bitten by the reptiles with which they were playing a little time before; and they have died of those bites. For instance, a few years ago, in my father’s sovereign city of In- derabad, an itinerant snake-charmer earned the applause of crowds in every street by the intro- duction of some novelties into the wonted routine of the performance adopted by men of his class. He retired to rest at night in a hut on the out- skirt of the city,—his purse being well filled with coin ; and his basket of reptiles—the source of his gains—safely secured, as he thought. In the morning the man was found dead; and a slight puncture on the cheek—or rather two small punc- tures, close together, and not larger than if they had been formed by the point of a lancet—indi- cated the cause of his death. One of the cobras had contrived to escape from the basket; and as there was no charming music at the time to fasci- nate its ear, it plunged its fangs into the flesh of its master. It was found coiled up in a corner of the hut, gorged with some.small animal that it had swallowed; and being inert after its meal, was easily destroyed.” While the Princess was yet speaking, the sounds of the two emissaries’ footsteps were heard over- head: they were evidently passing along the pas- sage in which the principal bed-chambers were situated. The music had never ceased playing from the instant they quitted the drawing-room : and though Christina was somewhat encouraged by the assurance which the Princess had ere now given her, she notwithstanding still experienced the cold creeping sensation as if a prolonged shud- der were continuously creeping over her. “‘ Now they are in my chamber,” said the Prin- cess, as the footsteps were heard in the apartment precisely over the drawing-room. “ Hark! the music plays louder—it grows more rapid! I know its meaning well! Yes, Christina—that man’s instinct did not deceive him !—there is assuredly a deadly reptile in the house——Ah! and it is in my own room!” Our heroine gave a half-stifled shriek of affright 365 as she threw herself into the arms of the Princess, —weeping and sobbing upon that lady’s bosom, and mumuring in a broken voice, “Just heaven ! if it should proveso, Oh! what would have become of your ladyship, had not these messengers ar- rived! It is providence that has sent them !” Indora strained her young friend to her breast, and imprinted a kiss upon her pure polished fore- head: then a sudden ejaculation burst from Indora, as the music suddenly ceased in the chamber overs head. “ What is it P’? asked Christina: and her breath was suspended with @ suspense most poignantly painful. “Tt is all over!’ responded the Princess: “ the reptile is discovered and is destroyed. Hark to the joyous tones of those men’s yoices! But hither they come.” And it was so. The two emissaries were de- scending the stairs with much more rapid steps than when they had mounted them a few minutes back. The music was not renewed: it was there- fore evident that all danger was past and gone. The door opened; and the senior messenger has- tened into the room—where falling upon one knee at Indora’s feet, he opened a towel which he car- ried in his hands, and displayed a cobra cut into three pieces. Those fragments of the reptile were yet writhing convulsively: but all real life was out of them—it was mere spasmodic action which the sections thus displayed—and the snake was inca- pable of mischief. But Christina averted her looks with ineffable loathing, as well as with a cold shuddering terror. The Princess herself flung but one glance on the remains of the deadly rep- tile ; and in obedience to a sign from her, the mes- senger covered them up again with the towel. He spoke in answer to some question which the Prin- cess put; and then she bade the junior emissary likewise approach. He also knelt; and the Prin- cess, drawing from her fingers two rings of im- mense value, bestowed them respectively upon the two individuals who had thus saved her from de- struction. “ Yes, my dear Christina,” she said, again ad- dressing herself in English to our heroine, and speaking in a voice of profound solemnity,— “Heaven has indeed interposed most signally in my favour. Tranguillize your feelings—exercise a command over yourself—while I tell you what I have just learnt from the lips of these men. It appears that the moment they entered my chamber, the instinct of the younger one convinced him in @ moment that the reptile was there. Again I say compose yourself, Christina—although I con- fess that the bare idea makes even myself shudder. Yes—for forth from my bed—from beneath the |clothes—from the. very place where in another hour I should have lain myself down—glided the hideous reptile. Then was it that the music played more loudly and more rapidly, as we heard it ; and the cobra began to dance upon the bedding according to the wont of its species when thus fascinated by a peculiar medody. But its very moments were numbered : for the keen weapon of the senior messenger, glancing like a lightning- flash, smote the reptile with unerring aim; and it lay severed, as you have just seen it, upon the bed which might under other circumstances have proved a bed of death to me!” OLMMUCGLOMOOLKS i i a a ea PN A A A I ED a ETL