The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 194: what you’re looking at

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

CLOSE OF THE TRIBUNAL 169 ‘To you, Mrs. Oxenden,’”’ continued the queen, ‘‘I can have but little to say, — indeed nothing more than to reiterate the hope which I have expressed to Mr. Stanhope, that the scene of this night may have a beneficial influence upon you. You will be restored to freedom; to-morrow you will go forth into the world again, and if you be wise you will endeavour by the respectability of your future career to make as much atonement as possible for your past misdeeds. The young man on whom you have been lavishing the gold which you received as the price of your own infamy has been wounded in a duel which he himself provoked, but his injury was slight, and no disagreeable consequences will ensue. On the contrary, that incident has been productive of beneficial results for Alexis Oliver. He has been made to feel the degradation of the position in which he was living with you; he is reconciled to his family, and opportunities will be afforded him of pursuing an honourable career. You must not therefore hope that the object of your infatuation will be restored to you; and now once again do I express the hope that your own conduct will experience an alteration for the better.”’ Mrs. Oxenden listened with a subdued sullenness to the speech which thus flowed from Queen Indora’s lips, and perhaps she would have given some insolent reply if she had dared. But she was in awe of that illustrious lady who ex- ercised the power as well as manifested the inclination to reward or to punish, though as for penitence, Mrs. Oxenden possessed not a heart that was susceptible of the influences which might lead to such contrition. “As for you, man of many crimes,’”’ proceeded Indora, now addressing herself to the Burker, “it were an outrage against society to leave you without chastisement. If you were handed over to the grasp of your country’s law your life would be forfeited, and you would expiate on the scaffold the numerous iniquities of which you have been guilty. In my estimation, however, the punishment of death is odious, and I hold the opinion that the great criminal should be treated as a ferocious beast, to be confined within bars that he may not follow the bent of his brutal bloodthirsty in- stincts. It is my purpose to transport you with the least possible delay to my own native country, and there you will be confined in a fortress for the remainder of your life. In COnNICLOOKS (S@)