The Seamstress; or, The White Slave of England — page 36: what you’re looking at

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

THE SEAMSTRESS. 29 a terrible tightening of the heart accompanying the resolution which he thus expressed. “It will | guests; and their horrified looks, vaguely terrible not bo wise to incur the risk of her learning this | ejaculations, and strangely disturbed manner were fatal blow by some side-wind: I will at once seek | assuredly sufficient to inspire the Duke with that her—lead her away for a few minutes from the | mortal dread which evidently seized upon him. festal scene—and whisper the misfortune in her| Even Mr. Solomon and his two bailiffs were ears. Oh! how I now loathe and detest that | frightened: for although they were very far from splendid gaiety—that joyous revelry which reigns | conjecturing aught of the terrible drama which in the saloons above! ’Tis the veriest mockery that } had so recently occurred, they felt convinced that Then into the library poured a number of the could exist in the face of this tremendous calamity ! But I must away to the Duchess.” Having thus mused while he again paced to and fro in a disturbed and agitated manner, the | wretched nobleman abruptly quitted the apart- ment. Mr. Solomon now gave some official instructions to his two men, and was about to take his depar- ture, leaving them in possession of the ducal man- sion, when it struck him that he had better wait a | -solable: but when he was assured that the Duchess little longer to ascertain whether it were yet possible for his Grace to procure the requisite amount that night and thus get rid of the seizure. He accord- ingly whiled away a quarter of an hour by ex- -amining an elegant volume of plates that lay upon © the table, while his two men carried on a whispered conversation between themselves by the fireside. At the expiration of the interval just named the | something more fearfully exciting than even the | rumour of the seizure must have occurred in the mansion. The dreadful tale was soon tolds;—and the un- happy Duke, apparently crushed altogether by this /new calamity, revealed amidst the most piteous lamentations the fact previously unknown and un- suspected by the guests, that the myrmidons of the law were in possession of his dwelling. For some minutes the Duke appeared to be incon- was not dead, and that the murderous blow had not proved immediately fatal, he seemed to be recalled to a sense of the duty which he owed as a husband. Eixerting, therefore, a powerful effort in order to place a curb upon the frenzy of his feelings, he put hurried and anxious questions to those around him. Was the Duchess sensible? could she speak? had Duke of Belmont returned to the library. He closed the door somewhat violently behind him— and, flinging himself on a sofa, covered his coun- tenance with his hands. The two men left off whispering—and Mr. Solomon ceased to turn the | pages of the book: for the affliction of that ruined | nobleman seemed something too solemn and sacred | to be interrupted even in the slightest degree. | At length the Duke raised his head, withdrew his hands from his ghastly pale countenance, and casting a wild vacant look around, said in a hoarse thick tone, as if ashes were in his throat, “ Give me some water.” Mr. Solomon hastened to fill a tumbler from a | decanter which stood upon the table; and the Dulce | took it with a hand that trembled so violently he could scarcely convey the glass to his lips. ‘hen the water went hissing down his throat, as if it were passing over red-hot iron. “ My brain is reeling—I feel ill—very ill,” mur- mured the Duke, as he gave back the tumbler into the officer’s hand. “This night will prove the death of me!” “I hope that her Grace has received the intel- ligence with fortitude, my lord ?” said Mr. Solomon, scarcely knowing whether he ought to venture the observation or not. “Ter Grace?” ejaculated the Duke, as if not altogether comprehending the query: then he im- mediately added in a more collected manner, “I was unable to find her Grace—she was not in the saloons—and——”’ At that instant the rush of many footsteps and the confused din of numerous voices all speaking at once, reached the library;—and as the noise rapidly approached nearer along the passage leading to this apartment, the words “ Where is the Duke?” rose plainly above the other sounds. “ Heavens! what is the matter?” exclaimed his Grace, springing from the sofa and rushing towards the door, which was at that moment burst rather than pushed open. she given any explanation? and whether surgical attendance had been sent for ? The replies were equally prompt and curt. The Duchess was totally insensible—and although the vital spark was not extinct, yet those who had seen her, were afraid to hold out vain hopes. Her daughters-in-law and handmaidens were conveying her to her own chamber when the guests then pre- sent in the library had come in search of the Duke; —and several footmen had been despatched in various directions to ensure the prompt attendance of at least some of the numerous practitioners dwelling in the neighbourhood. The Duke having received these hurried answers to his own hastily-put questions, was now all anxiety to rush to the chamber of the Duchess: but the numerous friends who flocked around him, besought him to exercise his patience at least until the arrival of the medical men. The truth was, they saw the fearfully excited state of the Duke’s mind, and feared that, if the Duchess should rally, the very excess of his attentions and the demonstration of his grief at the awful occurrence would only be calculated to produce injurious effects. It was well known that he was devotedly attached to her,—that he was proud of possessing so splendid acreature as a wife, —and that his disposition, naturally cold in other respects, was capable of being excited into a frenzy of either enthusiasm or of grief by anything that regarcled her. While the Duke was still insisting upon flying to the chamber of the Duchess and his friends were battling against his obstinate purpose with all their powers of persuasion, intelligence was brought that a distinguished physician and an eminent surgeon dwelling in the neighbourhood had just arrived:— and soon afterwards the Duke’s son entered the library with a prohibition against any one seeking the yicinage of his mother-in-law’s chamber until the medical men had bestowed upon her the needtul ministrations. The young Marquis was dreadfully agitated: but esses GOmic doo cs) (C©@)