The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 377: what you’re looking at

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

348 REYNOLDS’ WORKS was a bold one altogether, though he had: no remorse on its account; but he fancied that if the other inmates of the house should escape from the conflagration, the murder and the robbery might possibly be discovered, and they could scarcely fail to know that the ryot had awarded his hos- pitality to two men who would be missing. However, the triple turpitude of murder, robbery, and arson was con- summated; it was too late to recall either of the foul deeds, and the Burker thought within himself that the gossoon must have had excellent reasons for superadding the last crime to the two former. On they went together, and every now and then, as they looked back, they beheld the tremendcus conflagration, but the Burker could distinguish no persons moving about in the vicinage of the flames. At length a grove hid the burning scene from the view of the criminals, and they reached a cave, where they passed the remainder of the night. At dawn they resumed their journey, and the gossoon was now careful to avoid towns or large villages. They procured refreshments at isolated cottages, either through charity or by paying for their food, but they were equally careful not to display the large sums of money which they possessed. Ten days passed after the terrible crimes which we have just recorded, and many a long mile had the criminals journeyed together, thus continuously increasing the inter- val between themselves and the scene of their turpitude. At length the gossoon evidently thought that they were completely safe, and they entered a small town which they now reached. Here they purchased a quantity of excellent provisions, and some article which they thus bought was wrapped up by the shopkeeper in a piece of a newspaper. On reaching the khan, where they purposed to pass the night, the Burker happening to look at the fragment of newspaper, discovered that it was printed in the English language. It was one of the small local journals which are issued in that tongue in India. While eating his supper, the Burker looked over its contents, until his attention was riveted to a paragraph headed “ Terrible Fire and Loss of Life.” | He read the paragraph, and he found that it related to the very deed of blackest turpitude which himself and the Gomicdoc <S (E(©)