The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 89: what you’re looking at

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

70 REYNOLDS’ WORKS “No, nothing, nothing, so long as the girl Ashton is beneath that roof,” replied Sagoonah, firmly. ‘She sleeps lightly; she has already more than once detected me in wandering about the premises by night; she has seen me enter the chamber of my mistress, and she impressively. told me that the silent hours of darkness are those which Murder chooses wherein to do its dreadful work.” _ “ Ah, she has said that?’ muttered Madame Angelique, with a look of mingled terror and vexation. ‘Yes, she has said that,’’ responded Sagoonah, impress- ively, “‘ and think you therefore that if a suspicious deed were done by night within those walls, the Christian girl would not at once lay her hand upon my shoulder, and say, ‘It is you who did it.’. No, woman,” continued Sagoonah, ‘“my hand shall not wield the weapon, nor pour the drop of poison between the lips of my mistress, so long as Christina Ashton is there, and in a position to surrender me up to jus- tice. If we were in mine own country it would be different, and I should defy her. For there the deed might be done under such circumstances as would completely avert sus- picion from myself, ay, even though in my former conduct there had been anything suspicious. Yes, were we in mine own native Hindustan,” proceeded the ayah, now speaking as if musing with herself rather than actually addressing her observations to Madame Angelique, “this hand of mine would convey to the couch of my mistress some reptile of deadly venom, whose fangs would instil the quick poison into her veins, and whose form would be found coiled up in the morning upon the bosom of its victim.”’ ‘‘ And you would do this if you were in India?” said Madame Angelique, whose imagination was horribly prolific in all vile expedients; ‘‘ you would do this, Sagoonah? ” “Ay, I would do it,’ was the response, “‘ because the presence of the reptile would tell its own tale, and no one would ask whether it had been conveyed by a human hand to the couch to which it brought death, or whether it had insidiously glided in and nestled there of its own accord. But in this country of yours you have no such venomous things that may be caught in any patch of grass, found amidst the foliage of any tree, or snatched up from the midst of any parterre of flowers.” ) “But if I told you, Sagoonah,” said Madame Angelique, CORMICLIOOKS (E(0)