The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 373: what you’re looking at

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

344 REYNOLDS’ WORKS Hall and elsewhere to furnish the means for missionaries to carry the gospel amongst the ‘ benighted heathens and pagans ”’ of that Oriental clime, but who of those missiona- ries has ever returned to England to raise an indignant voice against the infliction of the torture upon the poor Hindus? A pretty opinion must those unfortunates have of the nation to which belong the missionaries who would convert them, and a fine notion must they entertain of that religion which seeks to proselytize them. Of the full amount of horrors committed by British rule in Hindustan, the masses of our people have but a faint idea, but we solemnly assure them that no single detail of the above given description of the torture-chamber in India is in any way exaggerated. We now resume the thread of our narrative. The Burker, on emerging from the midst of that scene of horrors, sped through the streets, anxious to escape as soon as possible from a town where vagrancy was so frightfully punished. He beheld not the gossoon, nor did he indeed take any trouble to look for him; he was glad to have got rid of such a dangerous companionship. Issuing from the town in the contrary direction from that by which he had entered it, the Burker proceeded at random across the open country, until the sultriness of the sun at length compelled him to seek the refreshing shade of some trees; for since quitting the jungle he experienced no apprehension on reposing himself beneath such umbrageous canopies. He soon fell fast asleep; his slumber lasted for several hours, and when he awoke, it was with a gnawing sensation of hunger in his stomach. But, ah, who was this that was seated on the grass near him? It was his late companion, the squint-eyed gossoon, who appeared to have been patiently waiting until the Burker should arouse himself. For a moment an expression of an- noyance passed over the Englishman’s features, but his looks as well as his mood speedily changed when the gos- soon emptied upon the grass the contents of his wallet. The fare thus furnished was good, and the gossoon grinned with a malicious triumph as he perceived the aspect of vexation flit away from the Burker’s countenance. They both com- menced an attack upon the provender, which they washed down with a quantity of spirits from the flask that the wallet likewise contained. When the meal was over, the gossoon made dolorous signs GOmicsooks (E(0)