The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 66: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER IV THE TREACHEROUS HINDU WOMAN WHEN last we spoke of the ayah Sagoonah, it was to describe her lying in her couch at Queen Indora’s villa, and making unconscious revelations respecting the past. During the night of the day which followed a gleam of intelligence came back into Sagoonah’s mind; it faded away, presently it returned, it subsided again, and then it came back with increasing power. She was altogether recovering her con- sciousness. | Long before morning dawned on that night of which we are speaking, Sagoonah was in complete possession of her mental faculties, and though she uttered not a word, she was now aware of her position and of the frightful calamity which had befallen her. Collecting her ideas, she settled them upon that memorable evening when, disguised in the apparel of her mistress, and laden also with the treasure plundered from the queen, she had intended to escape from the villa, but only to be stricken down by an assassin’s dagger. By the bedside she perceived an elderly woman, whom she had no difficulty in recognizing as a nurse, and presently the queen herself entered the chamber. Sagoonah closed her eyes, and appeared to be sleeping profoundly. The nurse quitted the room for some purpose; Indora bent over the ayah, and entertaining not the shghtest suspicion that the treacherous Hindu was now in possession of her reasoning faculties, her Majesty gave audible expression to the thoughts that were uppermost in her mind. “Oh, Sagoonah, Sagoonah,” she murmured, ‘‘ how could you have been so wicked, you whom I loved and trusted? ”’ No change upon the ayah’s countenance denoted that she heard or comprehended what was thus being said, and In- 49 COnNICLOOOKS (SO)