The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 330: what you’re looking at

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

THE MURDERESS 299 the shoulders of the miserable woman. ‘Then, as she felt the sanguine current of life stagnating beneath the touch of those hands so marble cold, a hollow moan escaped her lips; and this breaking of a long and stupendous silence on her part appeared to be the signal for a new phase in the wild and horrible drama. For now the fearful shapes suddenly seemed to become animated with a lurid fire that first spread over them, as it were, with a bronzing effect, and then increased in power so as to give them the appearance of transparency, until the glow heightened to an intenseness which produced an effect as if the spectral forms were moving in the midst of a tremendous furnace. Thus, as horror succeeded upon horror, the brain of the milliner was shattered with the re- curring paroxysms, her very soul was riven by the wildest tortures, and a cry, between a shriek and a yell, thrilled from her ashy lips. The spell of her waking dream was dissolved in a moment; the ghastly phantasmagorian train vanished quickly as the eye can wink; and once again was the milliner entombed in the darkness of utter night and in the silence of the grave. For nearly a minute did she sit motionless while her ideas resettled themselves in her brain. The stagnation of the blood gave way, the sanguine tide flowed languidly for a few moments, and then faster, but the tide was turned, and the muscles also regained full play. She started up, she swept her open palms athwart her forehead upon which the perspi- ration stood in large drops, and then, with a sudden half-pace forward, she extended her arms wildly, murmuring in a hurried, hoarse tone and with broken accents, ‘‘’Twas a delusion, — a mere delusion, — but how horrible! ”’ And then she sank back upon the seat whence she had risen; and her arms fell languid and dead by her sides, and once more was she struck by the stupor of a tremendous consternation and an ineffable dismay. Her very soul was crushed as with the weight of all the human woes that had gathered and concentrated for centuries and centuries; and thus for a few minutes did she remain in the utter absorption and annihilation of blank despair. But all in a moment a pang shot through her heart and a feeling of horror traversed her brain; and as a host of vivid memories swept over her Spirit, conjuring up all her former enjoyments and contrast- GOMIIGDIOG SS) (©)