The Mysteries of London; or, Lights and Shadows of London Life — page 86: what you’re looking at

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

J | instraction, I gathered my first lessona in crime? | Who but you tempted me to forsake the paths of honesty and honeur, and plunge into ‘that baneful track that led to infamy and ruin? Who but your- self lured me en first to deceit, then to embezzlement, and lastly to frand? When, as boyish rivals in love, striving for the hand of the same girl, who afterwards became the wife of one far worthier than either of us— what demon was it who urged the schemes that led him to his rain, and then triumphed over the_happi- mess he had wrecked? And when that woman became a widow, and, to free her from the insulting repetition of your own advances, I gained the prize at last, on which I had staked my hopes in youth, who was it that crushed the happiness which had begun to grow around me? Basely informing against your own accomplice, exposing a share in the forgery, which you had neither the skill to conceive nor the courage to execute, I was driven by you from all I had loved on earth. To save the woman I esteemed the shame of being pointed at as the convict’s wife, I fled from the danger that threatened me; and who was it that, to further his own base ends, thus added traitor to his other titles of villany? Who but the agent to the Earl of Winterton, the man who has built his own fortune on the ruin of others, the sleek and subtle knave that the world may call ‘ Honest Jarvis ;’ but who, at heart, is one of the blackest rogues that ever disgraced the hvman form?” “These are harsh words, Mr. Mordaunt, and you may repent having uttered them,” answered the wily agent, who now, having recovered from the surprise into which he had been thrown, had relapsed into his former cool and calculating demeanour; “had the charge which was brought‘ against you been false, whether it was made at my instigation or nof, it would have been far wiser to have stood your ground and boldly braved it out. When any great offence iscom- mitted, it is remarkable how easily the offender thinks of getting off by shifting the crime on to the shoulders ~of another party.” “Infernal hypocrite!’ thundered the incensed hearer; “ you well knew how deeply and how care- fully you had laid the plot. There-were no proofs ex- isting by which I could legally substantiate your con- nection with the affair; you had sent me not a single letter, whilst you possessed several of mine. Had I revealed your infamy as 1 ought, not a soul in court would have believed my unsupported word, and you would have had a double triumph in gloating with malicious joy over the failure of my accusations and the punishment to which you would’ have seen me consigned.” “Yes, there were no proofs, no witnesses,” chuckled Jarvis, with a glee that showed the delight with which he now reviewed the circumstances in his mind; “I had been too cunning, of course; too clever in arrang- ing my plans, to be thwarted at the very moment of success. Perhaps, after all, you were right to go—I should have done the same.” “Think not that I was on that account absent so ’ long,” pursued Mordaunt; “ it was not fear of you, but _the accidental result of my voyage, that kept me from the shores of my native country. The vessel was wrecked off the coast of Newfoundland, and all perished but me and one of the crew, who, clinging like myself to a stray spar, managed to keep afloat until we were picked up by a schooner on the following day. Fortune, after years of adventure and unre- mitting toil, gave me, at last, the means I sought, and I returned to England; but it was to Reggina wr eet —— ee os —_— THE MYSTERIES OF LONDON, OE ee ee ‘dead, and my child taught to shun the mention atthat | ae aad et ll hl A er Ai acm father whom it never knew.” “Hum!” mused Jarvis, “and I suppose you charge me likewise with having ruined the whole family? you had much better, Mr, Mordaunt, lay that accusa- tion at my door; perhaps I murdered the child—if so, pray make me acquainted with it, that I may know the whole extent of my iniquities.” “Fiend!” ejaculated Mordaunt, “on your cold- blooded heart and hardened feelings I do not expect the ties of relationship would produce much im- pression, It was enough that your cruel conduct murdered the mother—that the love, which with you had turned to hate, impelled you to display yourself as the undisguised monster that, under the cloak of sanctity, I had always known youtobe. But though they bear not my name, and doubtless shudder at my memory, I will rest not until those children—her children—have been restored to the position which they would have enjoyed had not your infernal scheming thrown them helpless on the world.” “ Where they will be far better able to learn the true value of that station to which you would raise them,” added Jarvis, sarcastically. “ But I believe,” he continued, after a slight pause, “they are now resident altogether.in London. The elder Thornton was a fine, spirited lad when I last saw him: and if your boy takes after his brother, you will have little cause to complain of him. You should be glad, for your own sake, they have been both of them so for- tunate as to obtain situations, that have enabled them to support the youngest, who, by the way, mast be seven years old, or nearly so, by this tints. You haye seen them, of course?” oe “ Accident has ‘made me aedusinted with their place of residence,” answered Mordaunt, evasively— “but to the purpose for which I came. In this interview with you here, my principal motive was to take you by surprise, and alone; when the subject to which I have referred would, as I hoped, produce a more vivid effect from the immediate vicinity of the spot where the proofs of your criminality could be gained, and where the very scenery that surrounds you ought to awaken in your mind those conscience that cannot be entirely deadened. my arrival, a few months since, I have not glectful of the purpose to which I have yowed t vote the remainder of my existence, but I have had another object in view. I have your career during my absence, step by step; I av the artful machinery you have employed to worm yourself into the confidence of the Earl of bea and the extent to which you have succeeded. He believes you to be true to his interests, and atixious to appear a faithful steward of the trust which he has reposed in your keeping. Little does he think the handsome revenue you have been annually dopsiving him of, and placing to the account of your own ill gotten gains, A word from me would "aissipate'thia illusion that he labours under, and would reveal to him the true character of the man in whom he has placed this unlimited confidence, On yourself, and the course you may now choose to adopt, it depends Jarvis, ‘3k whether that word shall be spo “And what reliance,” sneered 66 placed on the communication of an expa venturer, who has already flown from quences of one crime that still hangs over prtaes and who, under an assumed name and title, is exe with funds that he can only ,have obtained in similar {manner, derived from the same nefarious ii aS ze ll | - x ‘ = om