The Mysteries of London; or, Lights and Shadows of London Life — page 130: what you’re looking at

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

124 with which the outer balcony was filled, the figure pushed cautiously aside one of the long French win- dows that had been left open for the admission of air, and entered the apartment, now involved in the deep- est gloom. Moving across the thick Turkey carpet with the same careful and silent footsteps, the daring intruder felt his way towards the bureau that occupied one side of the apartment, and, passing his hand over the open desk, he began to search for some papers that he had apparently expected to find exposed upon its surface. - He had been thus engaged not more than a few minutes when the appearance of a light, seen through the chinks and crevices of the doorway, warned him that some person was approaching; and with a sub- dued oath at this interruption to his proceedings be- fore his object was gained, the intruder drew hastily back from the bureau; and finding there was not time to escape by the same way as he had entered, he paused for one instant, to secure an available place of concealment, and then secreted himself behind the tapestry curtains that were suspended in thick, cum- brous folds on one side of the window through which he had passed. He had scarcely ensconced himself in the hiding- place he had chosen before the door opened, and the earl entered, returning with the papers which he had sought, and followed by a domestic bearing with him the lamp. The rays of light that now illuminated the apart- ment failed, however, to disclose the place where he who had thus had the audacity to penetrate into the earl’s mansion was concealed ; and perfectly motionless, and hardly venturing to breathe, for fear of discovery, he remained unheard and undetected. At a signal from the earl the servant placed the lamp upon the table and withdrew; and then, unfold- ing the documents which he had brought with him, the Earl of Winterton drew his seat close to the bureau, and, arranging his papers before him, he was in a short time completely absorbed in their perusal. Directly his eye had caught the first few lines of the clearly-written manuscript, his attention became riveted; and as he read on, page by page, the avidity with which he possessed himself of the nature of their contents was increased, rather than abated, by the progress that he made. For the whole life of his former agent, the man to whose care he had confided the management of his estate, and the one whom he had hitherto believed a faithful steward of the trust reposed in him, was here recounted in all its dark and intricate bearings; the secret springs of the insidious agent’s character were laid bare, and the past prac- tices of that individual were revealed and exposed by a chain of circumstantial evidence so confirmed and supported by collateral proofs, that the earl would bave been unable to have continued his reliance on the man, even had he been previously disposed to have given a decision in his favour. Thus was the earl engaged until the night had far advanced; the nobleman deeply occupied in scanning the nature of the communication he had received, and the watcher silently and almost breathlessly recon- noitring from his position the proceedings of the Suddenly a cry of alarm escaped from the lips of the Earl of Winterton as he raised his eyes from the packet, and they fel upon the repulsive features that he saw peering out upon him from the folds of the curtain. At the same iostant the lamp was over- RC ET TS et ee THE MYSTERIES OF LONDON, turned; a ment, and with a shnek of horror the nobleman clasped his bands before his face and sank in affr upon the desk, Almost simultaneously with this there was a rush of colder air into the room, a slight rustling was heard among the plants in the balcony; and when the servants, alarmed by the , rushed into the library, they found the earl stretched sense- less upon the carpet. The only reply that could be given to their eager. inquiries were the incoherent cjaculations of one apparently bereft of reason. “The head—the head!” exclaimed the earl, shud- dering with the recollection of the supposed apparition ; and, as they raised him from the position into which he had fallen, no other words were 3 A physician was instantly summoned, but his en- deavours to restore consciousness were unavailing. The circulation was languid and feeble, the pulse slow and irregular, his breathing short and oppressed, A cold perspiration seemed to ooze from every pore, his teeth were locked, his eyes fixed and glassy, his countenance pale and contracted, and a general tremor shook his whole frame. Search was made for the papers which the earl had been reading, but they were nowhere to be found; and the next morning the decision of the medical consultation that had taken place during the night was promulgated through the fashionable circies,and announced the Earl of Wintege ton to be suffering under the eflects of a nervous excitement, which had induced a temporary mental derangement, -_--_ eo CHAPTER XXVIII. i SKULL ISLAND. OccUPYING a vast area at the north of the New Road, and lying between the boundaries of Camden | wards from King’s Cross, under the appellation of — Maiden Lane, there is a spacious territory marked out — Town and the narrow thoroughfare i on the maps of the metropolis as Agar Town. From the back of old St. Pancras Church to the sombre massive structure known as the “ New Mudel Prison,” and from Battle Bridge to the very verge of Copenhagen Fields, there is yet still existing, underthe — name that has been mentioned, a region that, in all — the essential elements of filth, vice, and crime, may — fairly outvie in those particulars every other district i ! i 7 : complete darkness enshrouded the apart- eT of the kind that. can be pointed out in the vaunted | capital of Europe. Within these limits seem that is nauseous to the sight, offensive to the smell, and repulsive to the mind. Scavengers and traffickers — of all descriptions in animal refuse here carry on | their trade with impunity, and pile up their noisome collections in obnoxious heaps as monuments of — malaria, that scatter their putrid atoms into the purer | atmosphere around. From this fever-focus there daily ascends a putres- | cent steam that carries with it into the districts the seeds of future maladies, drawn up by i the rays of a hot sun into a canopy of deadly infection, and then, condensed by the cool night — air, descending like plague-engendering dew upon remote and better cared-for localities. stacks of putrefaction rise up in horrible masses of corruption before the very path of the pedestrian, — and refuse heaps of rotting garbage lie Gomichdoo S com Leedlessly in the roadway. The streets leading towards this uninviting region are half unfinished, a a