The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 170: what you’re looking at

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

THE TRIBUNAL 149 of that apartment from what it was when we described it at the opening of the chapter. Upon the throne on the dais Queen Indora sat again, a veiled female and a masked man on her right, two veiled women and one masked man on her left. There, too, were the sable draperies on the walls, the black pall upon the ceiling, the ghastly white covering upon the floor. And still likewise was the strange mysterious light burning within that inner room the door of which stood partially open. About five minutes had elapsed after the return of Queen Indora from her interview with the Duchess of Marchmont, and again was the sable drapery agitated on one side of the room. The door which that drapery covered had just opened, the hangings themselves parted for an instant, and the Duke of Marchmont was conducted in by the two Hindus who had brought him in their custody from London. These Hindus were officers in the household of the royal commis- sioners who a few weeks back had arrived from Inderabad to announce to Indora the death of her father and the intelli- gence that a throne awaited her. The two Hindus were dressed in their gorgeous uniforms, the splendour of which contrasted strongly with the sombre gloom of that awful tribunal. The Duke of Marchmont was blindfolded, and his hands were held behind him by his Hindu guards. But as if nothing should be wanting to complete the solemnity of the whole scene, and to render it as strikingly terrible as possible to him whose eyes were about to be unbandaged that they might gaze upon it, the two guards themselves were masked. One of them had his sabre drawn in his hand, as an emblem that his royal mistress wielded a power which it would be vain for the captive criminal to dispute. The Duke of Marchmont was conducted up to the front of the throne, at a distance of about half a dozen yards from which his guards made a halt. They then unfastened the kerchief which bandaged his eyes. From the description already given of the entire scene, the reader may possibly imagine the extent of the awe-inspiring terror with which it thus suddenly burst upon Marchmont’s view. Utterly un- conscious was he beforehand of the spectacle that his gaze_ was thus to encounter, and when we consider what this spec- tacle was, and likewise bear in mind that the Duke of March- GomiilGcaooks (C(O)