The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 191: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XIII CLOSE OF THE TRIBUNAL THE five witnesses had remained in their seats upon the dais in the large apartment, hung with black, which had served as the tribunal. The two Hindu guards had likewise continued in that room, mute and motionless, but their presence was sufficiently indicative of the inutility of any attempt being made to escape on the part of any of those witnesses whose own consciences might have excited ap- prehensions respecting what was to follow. The door com- municating with the room in which Sagoonah’s corpse was laid out had been closed almost immediately after Indora led the prisoner thither, and thus that portion of the larger apartment was now involved in the same semi-obscurity that prevailed elsewhere. The black drapery covered that door which had recently stood half-open; solemnly awful continued to be the aspect of the tribunal. Presently, after nearly an hour’s absence, Queen Indora returned. She came back alone; the prisoner was no longer with her. Her countenance was exceedingly pale, even more so than it was ere she quitted that apartment, for her feelings had been most powerfully wrought, and if she had experienced much satisfaction in successfully carrying out all her purposes, she had likewise felt much pain at the various details of their execution. Slowly she walked, and once more she ascended the throne. She did not immediately speak; a dead silence still prevailed for a few minutes, while all the witnesses contemplated her with anxiety and sus- pense. At length she broke that silence. “The solemn object for which this tribunal was consti- tuted,’”’ she said, ‘‘ has been achieved, and by the merciful assistance of Heaven I have become the instrument of ac- 166 Gomilcbooks (E()