The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 271: what you’re looking at

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

242 REYNOLDS’ WORKS a nail that projected from the side of aplank. The kerchief itself had caught a splinter of an upright post which sup- ported the rail in the middle, and it was just there that the piece of the dress was found fluttering. That therefore was the spot whence the countess had plunged into the foaming tide beneath, but whether accidentally or wilfully is a point which perhaps can never be with certitude cleared up. At all events, miss, I was determined to suppress that fact to which I have already alluded, and which could not have failed to strengthen the suspicion which prevailed at the time that it was a suicide. The two forms were partly out of the water and partly in it, when I found them. The countenance of her ladyship was singularly placid and serene; that of the young earl was expressive of an inde- scribable horror. It seemed as if having died with that expression upon his features, it remained indelibly stamped there. I separated the arms of the countess from his neck, and I can assure you, miss, it was no easy task, for the fingers were rigid, and they were so firmly interwoven, as it were, that I was compelled to use more violence than one likes to exhibit toward the dead, in order to get them asunder. I laid them side by side on the slope rising from the stream to the foot of the precipitous height, and then I sped for assistance.’’ By the time this narrative was finished, Isabella and the steward reached the grove through which the path went slightly winding toward the bridge. The grove consisted chiefly of fir-trees, and as these retained their verdure, they formed a screen veiling the bridge until a turn in the path suddenly brought the young lady and the steward in sight of it. The gurgling of the waters in the depth of the abyss met their ears, and Isabella shuddered at the thought that in those depths her relatives had met their doom. ‘‘ The bridge has now two rails, you perceive, miss,’’ said the steward, ‘‘ but at the time when the event took place it only had one. Immediately after the occurrence I ordered another to be fixed up, and the passage of the old bridge is now somewhat safer, though an incautious, a timid, or a tipsy person might still easily slip through.” ‘‘ Let the building of the new bridge be added to the list of improvements which I suggested yesterday,” said Isa- bella. CORNIELIOOLKKS (E(©)