Rosa Lambert — page 245: what you’re looking at

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

_ . = ow ee — : _ 234) _~ —_— windows, so that any attempt to open them from the outside would inevitably throw down the orna- ments and with the crash startle me up from my sleep. A month however passed away without develop- ing the slightest sign of plot or stratagem on Bel- more’s part—but, alas! not without making me aware that I was again to be, in the most bitter sense, a martyr to the villany of a fiend in human shape, CHAPTER XXX, HIGHGATRH ARCHWAY. YES—a month had passed since Belmore’s visit, and consequently two months since the date of my brother’s arrest and of the outrage which I had ex- perienced from my cousin Sir John Haverstock. I found that I was a second time in the way to be- come a mother: I could no longer conceal it from myself—though for months yet I might conceal it from the world. But did I shed tears now? No: 1 yearned for a deadly, a fearful revenge—a re- venge against Haverstock as terrible as the injury which he had wrought me. Even if after the in- fliction of that injury, I had still clung to the pur- pose of fitting myself by the reformation and the purity of my hfe, to accompany Beaumont to the altar, that hope would have been now annihilated ; though, as the reader is aware, I in reality had ceased to entertain if from the instant that I was sullied and polluted with the miscreant Haver- stock’s crowning infamy. No—I shed not any tears now: my eye-balls throbbed as I thought of all my wrongs—but they remained dry: my heart palpitated—but it was with the deep pantings fo a fearful revenge. One day I was riding on horseback, attended as usual by my groom, in the neighbourhood of High- gate; and I had nearly ascended the very steep hill which bears that name, when I perceived a lane branching off to the right, and turned my horse into 1t. The groom immediately rode up to my side; and touching his hat, said, “If you please, ma’am, this is Hornsey Lane.” “Oh, indeed!” I observed, thinking that he was merely giving’ me a piece of information as to the particular locality; though I was certainly somewhat surprised that he should take it into his head to address me, inasmuch as he had never done so before, but had been wont to follow in silence whithersoever I had chosen to lead. __ “Yes, ma’am,” he continued; “it is Hornsey Lane, and it leads over the Archway.” “Ah, I yvecollect!’ I said ;—“that immense high archway under which we passed the other day when we went along the Barnet road? But do you think,”-—for I now began to comprehend that there was a sort of warning in the man’s words,“ but do you think that there is any danger Pp” “The Archway is so high, ma’am,’”’ responded the groom, “that a person passing ovor on horse- back, when looking down, is apt to be giddy—or at least some people are.” “ But Lam never troubled with giddiness,” T answered, with a smile, “Thank you for your PALMAE ALO EA LLL LOS OLA EO CL ALLA LILLIE OTF awe ee ee ee + eee oor oe oso ROSA LAMBERT. ee we e-em - ewe ~ -- consideration on my account: it is however un- necessary.” “ Bog your pardon, ma’am,” persisted the groom, “but your horse is rather fresh and spirited ; and though you do manage him as well as a horse was ever managed by any lady that I’ve had the honour to attend upon,—still accidents may happen, ma’am.” , “ But if I mistake not,’ I observed, “ there is a high parapet on either side of the Arch- way P” , “So there is, ma’am: but not so high,” con- tinued the groom, “that a horse could not fling its rider over if it reared or shied, or played any tricks. Horses themselves, ma’am, get frightened sometimes at such places, just as human beings do. I don’t know whether it is with dizziness or what not-—but it is a fact all the same:” and the man accentuated his words earnestly as he spoke. “TI really have no fear,” I said, making a gesture for the groom to retreat into his proper place. “ Beg your pardon, ma’am,” he perseveringly continued, “but there was a farmer pitched off his horse over the Archway some three or four years ago; and down he went erash to the bottom. An- other accident too——saying your presence, ma'am, if was a sweep in his cart~about seven or eight years back-—for I was living up in Hornsey Lane then, and my master which was at the time, acted as for Well, ma’am, the horse jibbed and shied ; the sweep stood up in his cart to thrash the poor animal and make him go on: he just gave one dash towards the parapet— the sweep was pitched right over—he caught the top of the stone railings, and would have saved himself—but the wheel of the cart, as the horse rushed on, scraped against his hands, making him let go—and down the poor fellow tumbled. I saw his body afterwards: it was shoekingly smashed, as well it might be after a fall of a good hundred. and twenty feet.” I must confess that these anecdotes made the blood run cold in my veins: but just as the groom had done speaking, we came in sight of the bridge over the Archway. A gentleman on horseback was approaching from the opposite direction; and I felt that it would be an act of cowardice to re- treat. Besides, I wanted to return home; and I had no relish for the idea of descending the steep of Highgate Hill up which the horses had toiled a few minutes before. So I resolved to proceed ; and the groom, finding that I was thus obstinate— as he doubtless considered me to be—fell back to his proper station a few yards behind me. ~ Every resident in the metropolis—or at least } the greater portion of the dwellers in the multi- tudinous city—must have an intimate acquaintance with Highgate Archway: but for the benefit of provincial readers, I will give a brief description thereof. From the bottom of Highgate Hill, | branches off the Barnet Road, which, though itself an ascent, is nevertheless a cutting through a por- | tion of the hill. The ground on either side rises, until at the extreme height it is spanned by a lofty brick arch, over which, on a succession of arches, — the bridge is carried—thus having the air of a viaduct over tho deep cutting of a railway, but. much higher than the generality of such viaducts | (e(e) Cc