The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 182: what you’re looking at

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

THE WITNESSES 161 Amidst: -all the wildest conjectures which the Duke of Marchmont might have hazarded relative to the contents of this room, no possible surmise could have led him to anticipate the spectacle which he thus beheld. As we have said, therefore, he stood transfixed with mingled awe, won- derment, and horror, for it seemed as if death itself were now invoked to bear some kind of evidence against him. For upwards of a minute did Queen Indora suffer the scene to produce its fullest effect upon the prisoner, and then, in a tone of authority, she bade him advance farther into the room. He obeyed her; she closed the door, and he was now alone with that royal lady and with the corpse of Sagoonah. ‘““' My lord,”’ said the queen, in a voice that was low and most solemnly impressive, “‘ you are not altogether innocent in respect to the causes which led to the premature death of the hapless Sagoonah. I will not, however, deny that her mind was already in a morbid state when you employed the vile Frenchwoman to become her temptress and instigate her to the foulest deeds. Had it not been for this con- duct on your part, Sagoonah might have lived. But step by step she was led on to that fearful climax which was the accomplishment of her doom. It was retribution that she met. The means which she had adopted to take my life at the instigation of your agent became the source of her own death. The tragedy was a_ horrible one, and I do not hesitate to proclaim that Sagoonah was one of your victims. Oh, if you had never done aught but this, it were sufficient to fill your soul with a remorse that never in this life would be appeased. But greater still have been your crimes, and, as I ere now proclaimed, this is the - hour in which they are all to be made known. Prisoner, look upon that corpse. It is the corpse of her who in the madness of feelings and passions which I shall not pause to describe gave up your own brother to the dungeon-cell which he now tenants.”’ “My brother!’’ murmured the Duke of Marchmont, staggering at the words, as if they touched a chord which vibrated most painfully to his heart’s core. “Yes, your brother!’’ continued Queen Indora, and now she bent the look of an avenging Nemesis upon the Duke of Marchmont. ‘‘ Oh, think you that the proceedings CoOnniclooolkKs (©)