The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 91: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. most diminutive size, but in every variety of beau- tiful plumage. The Princess Indora was reclining upon a sofa at about the same hour on which, eight days pre- viously, we first introduced her to the reader. She was apparelled in a similarly fanciful style—only that she wore another dress; but the colours of the separate garments were chosen with a most tasteful regard to the delicate duskiness of the complexion, and the nature of the charms they had to set off. Supremely beautiful—eminently handsome indeed—was the Princess Indora, as she reposed, in her oriental garb, upon the velvet sofa in that sumptuously furnished room. And as be- fore too, there were intervals when she was deeply pensive—other intervals when she experienced a nervous excitement: for, as the reader is aware, it was on this evening that she was to receive the final decision of the object of her love. Presently the door opened ; and Sagoonah made her appearance. She entered, bearing the massive silver salver on which was the cut glass containing sherbet, and which she presented on bended knee to the Princess. The Hindoo woman was clad in the same style as that which we have before de- scribed, and which was so admirably calculated to set off the lithe bayadere symmetry of her shape, and to leave her form and limbs completely free for every movement and gesture. “Within the hour that is passing, my faithful Sagoonah,” said the Princess, when she had quaffed a portion of the sherbet, “my fate will be sealed. The alternatives between which I am balancing, are happiness and misery. Both are in extremes—and there is no medium in which I may take refuge. You, Sagoonah, who have been my confidante—you who have served me so faithfully—you who shrank not from accompanying me on my long, long journey to a strange clime,—you, I say, must feel some anxiety as to the result of this evening’s interview P” “I do, lady,” responded Sagoonah; and as she stood somewhat aside, her eyes suddenly flashed strange fires. “You know, Sagoonah,” continued the Princess, “how fondly—how devotedly I have for years loved that man! You know how god-like was his beauty when first he became my father’s pri- soner tp | “I know it, Princess,” responded Sagoonah. | “Twas then a girl of about ten years of age.” “And I was fifteen,’ observed the Princess, in & low musing tone. “ Yes—fifteen years have elapsed since the first day that I beheld Clement Redcliffe! He was the first Englishman that I had ever seen “i “The first too, your Highness, that I ever saw ;” interjected Sagoonah: and though her words were uttered with that profound respect which had be- come habitual to her, it was nevertheless with a slight air of abstraction that she thus spoke. “Fifteen years—the most precious ones of my life,” continued Indora, “have been passed in a love that has been all but hopeless). No—not hopeless—for if so, I could not have existed: but it is at least a love that has experienced no reciprocity. Yes—handsome as some being of a higher world, was that Englishman when first we met! He tells me that he is changed now—and that the marks of age are coming thickly and rapidly upon | | 85 him. If so, I behold them not—or scarcely, What to me is it if his form should change, when his mind still shines with the never dimning, im- perishable light of one of these gems ?’’—and her looks settled upon a bracelet studded with dia- monds of the largest size and of the most dazzling brilliancy. “ Methought,” continued the Princess, “that so long as he was a prisoner in my father’s capital, his proud soul would disdain to bend itself towards her who was the daughter of him who held him captive. Aye—and more than that—he learnt by some means, I know not how, that when my father would have given him his liberty, it was in compliance with my secret promptings that he still retained him a prisoner. Yes—I did so prompt my father: for much as I loved Clement Redcliffe—deeply, deeply as I took his welfare to heart—I could not possibly bring myself to say the word which should make him free, and thus incur the risk of losing him for ever. He escaped —you are aware how: you know too how wild was my anguish—how bitter my grief, when I received the tidings of his flight. But then I thought to myself that perhaps now that he was | free, he might no longer look upon me as one who was wronging him: he might forget the past—or at least pardon it, on account of all the love I bore him. I flattered myself too, that this love so deep, so devoted, so imperishable, could scarcely fail to beget a kindred feeling. The eagle requires ample space for the play of his huge wings and the soar- ing of his ambitious flight: and so I thought that the proud soul of Clement Redcliffe, when enjoying the freedom of the whole world’s range, might look upon me with a different regard from that with which if was wont to survey me in the nar- row circuit of my father’s capital. Sagoonah, think you that this hope will be disappointed ?” “‘ Princess,” responded the Hindoo dependant, “T am but little accustomed to read the human heart: and the heart of an Englishman appears to: me as inscrutable as the mysteries of some forbid-- den book.” “True !—you cannot judge it,’ observed the Princess, in a low musing tone. “And more-- over, you have never loved, Sagoonah., No— you have never loved: you know not what love is.. You have been attached to me from your child- hood ; and if you had experienced the slightest. scintillation of that passion which I feel, you would have told me—or I should have discovered it. Is. it not so, Sagoonah ?”’—and the Princess raised her large lustrous eyes, dark as those of the gazelle,. towards the countenance of her dependant. “It is so, lady,” responded Sagoonah, in a low but firm voice. ““T marvel that you never loved,” proceeded | Indora, still in that same musing manner as before. ‘It appears to me that a heart susceptible of love must be invariably associated with beauty of the person :—it seems as if beauty, being formed to create love, ought to prove susceptible of the fire which it kindles. And you, my faithful Sagoonah, possess charms superior to any of your sex or caste, in your own native land. Yes, you are handsome—very handsome!’’—and now the eyes of the Princess wandered slowly, and with a cer. tain degree of listless abstraction, over the bayadere- like form of her attendant. Sagoonah stood perfectly motionless—her figure a or = Se EEE EEE -—-—- (C(O) 0)(0)(0) KS (eC)