The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 108: what you’re looking at

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

REMORSE 91 ance to produce an effect; it was the action of one who was labouring under morbid feelings most acutely excited. And as she spoke of stirring up the reptile from its torpor, she passionately ground her hand down, as it were, into the case; she imitated what she would have done in the circumstances which she was supposing. Her white teeth gleamed betwixt the parting vermilion of her thin, well-cut lips, her eyes sparkled with unnatural fires. The twins thought she was going mad. Indora herself was about to uge her authority and command her to be tranquil. All of a sudden Sagoonah drew forth her hand from the case, which she immediately dropped, and then for an instant she contemplated the back of that hand with the most earnest scrutiny. She was seen to reel slightly, and then a cry as if of wild, half-frenzied, and terrible joy thrilled from her lips. “Oh, I comprehend it,’’ she exclaimed, sinking upon an ottoman, ‘“‘ and death is coming to me at last! Lady, you are avenged, and my contemplated crime has brought its own punishment. Oh, I am dying! — the deadly poison is even now circulating in my veins. That case — touch it not in- side! Consign it to the fire — let it be consumed at once; there is death within! The serpent has left one of its venomed fangs there! ”’ A horrible light now flashed in unto the brains of the queen and the twins, and with a frightful clearness did they com- prehend the ayah’s meaning. Cries burst from their lips, as with one accord they sprang toward her. Indora lifted the ayah’s hand, and a slight puncture, or, rather, scarcely perceptible scratch, from which a drop of blood had oozed forth, was visible upon the back of that hand. ‘“Oh, what can we do to save her? ”’ cried Christina and her brother, as it were in the same breath. “No earthly power can save her,’ answered the queen solemnly; “‘ she must perish. Oh, Sagoonah, had you lived I could not have forgiven you, but now that death has fas- tened upon you, I assure you of my pardon.”’ The light of an unspeakable joy animated the dying ayah’s countenance, and seizing with her unwounded hand one of the hands of her mistress, she pressed it fervently to her lips. ““ May Heaven’s choicest blessings, lady, alight upon your head,” she exclaimed, “‘ and may you yet be happy. Oh, something will yet arise to accomplish this happiness for GomiilGaooks (©)