Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 171: what you’re looking at

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158 rible vengeance! ELLEN PERCY} OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS. I will give to the world a cer- , of cizziness,—the room appearing to whirl round; tain letter—a letter which perhaps you little | and I fell down deprived of consciousness. imagine to be in existence—but which is never- theless in my possession!” Lady Lilla Essendine staggered, and would have fallen had she not caught at the back of a chair. Her countenance became as ghastly as that of a corpse: her lips were livid: her eyes stared upon I subsequently knew by a reference to the time- piece that I must have been about a quarter of an hour in a dead swoon, before I began:to awaken from my insensibility. Then for some minutes there was a sensation as if I were slowly arousing from a troubled dream—experiencing an impos- me with an expression of dismay and consterna- | sibility to separate the real from the unreal, and tion. I was glad that circumstances had put me! to extricate my thoughts from the half-numbed in possession of the means of overawing a woman | confusion into which they had been thrown, I from whose countenance the mask was now torn | felt an exceeding heaviness in the head—a con- away, and who stood revealed to me in all the blackness of her natural character. | tinued dizziness of the brain—a half-suffocating sensation, as if I had awakened from a trance to “Ellen, that letter?” she at length said, in a | find myself buried in a coffin. At length I raised low hoarse voice: and she advanced a pace or two towards me: “that letter, Ellen how came it in your possession P” I was on the point of cutting short the colloquy, —when thinking that it would be better to make the blow which I had just stricken as decisive as possible, I resolved to give some little explana- tion. “The machinations of the wicked,” I answered, “are often turned by the hand of providence into weapons against themselves. Had St. Clair never carried me off to his house, I should not have found that letter in the drawer of a toilet-table at that dwelling. Such however was the fact;—and the letter was written by you, Lady Lilla Essen- dine! Again I bid you look down into your own conscience—and you will there read in imperish- able letters the crimes to which those burning, half-frenzied lines of your’s bore such awful allu- sion! And, Oh! that scream which last night pealed from your lips!—it was the involuntary and irresistible expression of a guilty conscience in its agonies! Now I have said enough. If you be acquainted with a secret of mine, you per- ceive that 1 have a terrible knowledge of a secret of your’s!” “For heaven’s sake spare me, Ellen!” said Lady Lilla, making a movement as if she would sink on her knees before me; while indescribable were the workings of horror, anguish, and dismay upon her countenance. “Give me that letter—I implore you to give it to me! There shall be peace between us—+#.” “TI keep that letter, my lady,’ I answered, “as @ guarantee of peace! Edwin St. Clair has al- ready on many occasions proved himself my enemy ; and you, Lady Lilla, just now threat- ened to become so. Think you, then, that under such circumstances I will part from that document which henceforth to me shall serye as a weapon alike defensive and offensive? No, Lady Lilla !— circumstances compel me to retain it !” “Ah! is it so?” was the low but quickly uttered ejaculation which fell fro.a her ladyship’s lips; and at the same instant I caught the changing expres- sion of her countenance: for quick as the light- ning-flash, it altered from an air of anguish and dismay to one of resolute and fiend-like wicked- ness. What then passed was likewise the work of an instant: for Lady Liila Essendine, thrusting her hand beneath the folds of her scarf, drew forth a white artificial flower ; and with one pace forward or rather with a sort of spring—she applied it to my nostrils. There was a momentary sensation i ] myself painfully; and there being some perfume in a smelling-bottle upon the table, I poured a quantity on my kerchief, and therewith bathed my forehead. The relief I experienced was instanta- neously great; and considerably strengthened, I passed into the back drawing-room, the window of which I opened. The cold breeze of February fanned my countenance, affording still greater re- lief. Ina few minutes [ was completely restored, with the exception of a slight headache,—which however soon passed away.. As I hastily reflected upon all that had taken place, the thought struck me that Lady Lilla Es- sendine had purposely thrown me into a swoon that she might visit my chamber and ransack my writing-desk in the hope of finding the document which I had refused to surrender up. I therefore hastened to my bed-room: but nothing was there disturbed. I looked in the desk, and found that fragment ofa letter which I had brought with me from St.-Clair’s house ; it was quite safe, in a secret drawer where I had deposited it. On making this discovery, which was so contrary to my expec- tations, I was at first bewildered—until a fearful suspicion began stealing into my mind. As I re- flected upon everything that had just taken place, past incidents came trooping into my memory— until at length, shuddering and appalled, I was brought to the horrible conviction that it was no temporary swoon.jnto which that fiend-like woman had sought to throw me—but that if was the eternal sleep of death into which she had purposed to plunge me! | Yes—there could be no doubt of it!—it was a murder that she had attempted! Ah, did I not now comprehend full well what was meant by smelling the white rose and sleeping the sleep of death? St. Clair was a murderer: Lilla Essen- dine was a murderess! But who had been their victim? JI had my suspicion: but of that no matter now. Oh, no wonder that a white rose was fraught with such terrific magical power for both! —for a deadly venom had been infused into that flower by which their victim’s life was taken some while back, and by which within the passing hour, the murderess had sought to take my own! But. I have said that incidents of the past were now brought freshly back to my mind. Could I fail to recollect that phial in the filagree case, which I had seen on Lady Lilla’s mantelpiece in the chamber at Claremont Villa P Did I not remem: ber how it had been dashed from my hand—by the accident of a convulsive movement, as I thought at the time—but by the horrifying and startling dread of becoming the victim of her own subtle (C COnnicloool< ~_ com