Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 266: what you’re looking at

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

| — -—_—- -_——_ —————_ -_.. -—_ —- ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS. 263 defy suspicion. If after a time she found that I had failed to administer it unto you, she might d¢rise other means to introduce the poison into yeur food. I had somewhere read or heard that there is an antidote for every poison; and I was resolved, if possible, to obtain the means of neutralizing this one, and therefore said to her, ‘ Your instructions, Dame Betty, should be followed out; but I am afraid that it will be scarcely pos- sible for me to accomplish them without danger to myself. Miss Percy is in the habit of taking her breakfast in her chamber; and when she has finished, I sit down there to my own meal. If I were to refuse, for instance, to drink the coffee of which she had been partaking, it would excite sus- picion.’—I devised other pretexts likewise in fur- therance of the end which I had in view.—‘ This matter is easily settled,’ said the dame; and pro- ducing from a cupboard another tin box, she showed me these pink-tinted lozenges. ‘Here,’ she con- tinued, ‘is an antidote for every possible poison, with the one exception of prussic acid. But for every venom which is not instantaneous in its effects, each of these lozenges contains @ neu- tralizing ingredient. Fear not therefore to carry out my instructions. If there be death in one box, there is assuredly life in the other. I will convince you. MHalf-a-dozen of these brown lozenges would produce death in a few hours. See! I will eat double that quantity.,—Having thus spoken, the vile hag crammed a dozen of the brown lozenges into her mouth, and sat for a few minutes crunching and sucking them. Then she went through the same process with an equal number of the pink lozenges; and when she had finished, she said with a diabolical chuckle, ‘ Now, my dear Beda, do you believe me?’—‘ I never doubted you,’ I responded: ‘I only wished to make myself safe; and since you have given me the antidote for my own use, I have no farther objection to administer the bane as you have directed.’—The old woman returned to her cup- board; and thence she produced two small canisters, from the respective contents of which she filled up the two tin boxes from which she had taken the lozenges that she herself had eaten. She gave me those boxes; and she then went forth to pre- pare the old cart again to bring me back to Bir- mingham. The horse was however so tired that he went but slowly ; and thus, what with the hours lost in these journeys to and fro, and the length of time I was detained at the cottage, I did not reach the hotel until three o’clock this morning, as I kave already told you. When parting from Dame Betty, I promised, with an air of the most perfect sincerity, to fulfil all her instructions; and she said to me with a significant look, ‘There are sixty brown lozenges in the tin box: there are as many pink ones. In less than two months from the present time I shall expect to hear of the death of Miss Percy !’—Oh, my dear mistress, it was with difficulty I could prevent myself from flying like a tigress at the throat of the vile hag, shrieking for assistance, and consigning her to the custody of the law’s officials. It required a pre- terhuman power on my part to perform a last act of dissimulation, and to assure her that as far as it lay with me her design should be executed. And thus we separated.” Beda’s eyes had flashed forth vivid lightnings as she gave utterance to those concluding ejacula- tions which expressed so much abhorrence towards the infamous woman: and I again embraced her for the friendship which she had displayed on my account,—renewing likewise my compliments for the politic course which she had adopted. “ But now, Beda,” I said, reverting to a topic which had been before touched upon between us; “the detestable wickedness of my enemies has reached a point at which it is impossible for me to remain any longer quiescent. Everything must be made known—the aid of the law must be invoked against these fiends in human form But you look deeply distressed, Beda ?” “T have sworn to Zarah—sworn in the most solemn and sacred manner,” replied the young girl, with looks and accents half-mournful, half-entreat- ing, “ that in whatsover I might do to succour you —ino whatsoever I may be enabled to accomplish with a view of shielding and protecting you—I will carefully guard against any exposure. Me- thinks you have a friendship for Zarah—from what she said to me she must have some little claims upon your gratitude—and though I myself, dear Miss, should be unwilling to assert any such claim on my own part, because I would cheerfully make any sacrifice of feeling—yes, even the sacrifice of life itself to insure your safety or to fulfil your wishes—yet, on the other hand A “Enough, Beda!” I exclaimed. “ After the manner in which you have just been speak- ing to me—and still more after the manner in which you have acted towards me, it is impossible that I can do anything to give you pain! Besides, I must not make you violate an oath ; and in respect to Zarah, ’tis true that I am under the deepest obligations to her—I could not possibly prove ungrateful :—whatever her motives may be I shall not pause to inquire even through the medium of conjecture—I am bound to respect them.” “And then too,’ observed Beda, solemnly, “amidst the sublime truths which you yourself, dear Miss, have taught me, is there not one which is perhaps more deeply impressed upon my mind than any other?—the one which teaches me that innocence and virtue must triumph in the long run over the machinations of the wicked—that the latter will be in the end discomfited—and that they will sooner or later trip and fall over the rugged- ness of the tortuous paths which they themselves have made.” “Yes, Beda—this is true,” I answered, gazing upon her with affectionate interest and admiration as there seemed to bea divine light in her eyes while she thus spoke; and that holy lustre shed its beams over her transcendantly beautiful coun. tenance. “ Besides,” she continued, now reverting to more worldly and more matter-of-fact concerns, “ there is one immense point gained from the incidents of the past night. You possess an antidote for almost every poison; and there are two ways in which this fact is to be looked upon as a subject for self-gratulation. In the first place, it must in the course of time become apparent to your ene- mies that I have failed, for some reason or another, to administer the poison: if they suspect my fide- lity towards them, they may seek other means of accomplishing the same end ; but the antidote is in —~ pan | | EE COMMUC JOO S Com