The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 313: what you’re looking at

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

284 REYNOLDS’ WORKS that the instinct of the reptile taught it to prefer that which was its natural and known enemy rather than assail a form which it was but little accustomed to behold in the jungle, — a human form the like of which perhaps the reptile had never seen before. Indeed, if the Burker had been better instructed in the habits of that species of snake, he would have known that he might now in all safety descend from the tree and continue his way, for that the reptile and the tiger would never separate until one should have become the victim of the other. But all this the Burker knew not, and consequently he dared not think of effecting his escape. Indeed, he fancied that if he were to descend from the tree, the serpent might suddenly loosen its hold upon the tiger to fling its deadly coils around himself, and that thus he should become exposed to the attack of both the snake and the wild beast. But to be doomed to remain in that tree, and witness the spectacle that was passing underneath, was an idea so horrible that the man’s brain reeled, a species of vertigo seized upon him, and again was he about to fall from the tree, when he was startled by a sudden howl of mingled rage and anguish that burst from the mouth of the tiger. Oh, with what tenacity did the Burker again clutch the branches of that tree! How fearful was the shuddering that swept through his entire frame! How excruciating was the sense of his hideous position! It was but one howl which the tiger thus sent forth at that moment, for the coils which the snake had probably loosened in malignant sport for an instant were suddenly drawn tight again. The brute was half-strangled once more, but it made the mightiest and most desperate efforts to release itself from the deadly coils. It lashed the grass and ground with its tail, and therewith likewise it dealt terrific blows at the snake itself. It tried to tear the reptile with its hinder claws. It convulsed, it writhed, it rolled itself about; its agony was horrible. Then the snake tightened its coils just sufficiently to overpower its victim without actually extinguishing its life, and there was another dread interval of silence. Tight around the branch of a tree remained the tail of the snake; its long, supple body hung down like an immense rope, gradually becoming thicker and thicker until it attained the dimensions of the CORNIELYNOOLKS (E(©)