The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 68: what you’re looking at

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

THE TREACHEROUS HINDU WOMAN 51 strictest seclusion at Inderabad. If she be truly penitent she will not grow impatient of that compulsory retirement to which it is my purpose to consign her; but if, on the other - hand, her soul shall continue to cherish rancorous thoughts, it will be all the more necessary that she should be deprived of the power of doing mischief.”’ ‘Oh, let us hope that she will be penitent,’ said Christina; “let us hope it, chiefly for her own sake.’’ Here the conversation terminated, but not one single syllable thereof had been lost to Sagoonah. She now com- prehended that all her iniquity was known, and that even the most terrific episode of her criminal proceedings — namely, that of the cobra di capello — had ceased to be a mystery. She saw, too, that an eternal imprisonment in her own native land was to be her doom, unless indeed she her- self should be enabled to frustrate the designs of the queen. But that this imprisonment was intended to be associated with the most lenient circumstances, Sagoonah compre- hended, not merely from the way in which her Majesty spoke, but likewise from her knowledge of that royal lady’s disposition. Nevertheless, the thought of such compulsory seclusion was sufficient to fill the soul of the ayah with dread and consternation. We have seen how conscience had been actively at work when reason’s governing power was absent; but now that the intellect had recovered its balance, and that the mental faculties had resumed their empire once again, the evil pas- sions of the ayah enabled her to stifle all those reproaches of the monitor within her bosom. Her crimes were known, and never again could she look her mistress in the face. Besides, to become a prisoner for the rest of her days — this was intolerable! And to know that Indora would enjoy happi- ness in the love of Clement Redcliffe, this likewise was more than the jealous Sagoonah could possibly make up her mind to contemplate. She loathed the very idea of the kindness which she must have been experiencing at the queen’s hands since the evening when the dagger of the assassin struck her down; and thus her soul was in every sense filled with gall and bitterness. Penitence and remorse! — these were in- compatible with such a disposition as Sagoonah’s. Her mind was made up how to act. At present she felt herself too weak and feeble to move from her couch, but she COniicloooks (S©)