Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 392: what you’re looking at

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

SSSSSS—SS———S_S—_.6680 EER TREEE ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS. it is something dreadful! That man’s crime has been enormous: but neither the laws of heaven nor earth permit you to take the task of vengeance into your own hands! Your deeply injured daughter is now an angel in heaven; and in the sphere whence she is looking down upon us, she deprecates and does not encourage the thought of revenge. Vengeance will not restore her to you! Leave this sinful man to his own conscience! Rest assured that he will from that source receive pun- ishment severe enough !” Silence, Miss Percy !” interrupted Mr. Gower, with a stern implacable voice: “it is not for you to intereede—you whom I regard as one of those who have helped to kill my daughter !” While he was yet speaking, the sounds of heavy footsteps were heard rapidly ascending the stairs ; and an odour of something burning at the same time reached my nostrils, I glanced towards the passage: a vivid glare was thrown upon its walls —and a cloud of smoke swept into the chamber. The next instant a man—as ruffian- looking as the other two—appeared upon the threshold of the dcor, which was standing open ; and he carried a brazier, in which charcoal and coals were burning, Good God! what did he mean to doP or what was to be done? I again essayed to speak—but I could not: my tongue clave to the roof of my mouth—I was over- whelmed by the direst, most appalling horror. I threw myself at Mr. Gower’s feet: he heeded me not—and I sank against a piece of furniture, elasping my hands—unable to rise—and with my looks fixed in hideous fascination upon the whole scene that was passing before me. “ Wretch !” exclaimed Mr. Gower, thus ad- dressing the young nobleman, who was held powerless in the chair—bound and gegged—and quivering visibly from head to foot,—“ wretch! you have availed yourself of the personal beauty which God has given you,—you have ayailed yourself of it, I say, for the vilest of purposes! But you shall do so no more: for that beauty of your’s—I will mar it! Into the world shall you go forth as another Cain, with a brand upon your brow. Thus, it is mot merely a vengeance which I wreak—but it is a safeguard which I guarantee to society. If Satan takes the shape of an angel, let the brand be placed upon the brow of the illusive form, so that the unwary may not be be- guiled! And now let the work be done!’ I can scarcely describe the state in which I lay upon the floor, with my head supported by the chest of drawers against which I had sunk down. I longed to cry out—to send shrieks pealing forth from my lips: but I couldnot. It was a kind of tetanos which had possession of me—a trance in which my limbs were paralysed and my tongue rendered useless, but in which all my other facul- ties still retained their keenest vitality. I could hear, and see, and understand Good God! how I wished that completest unconsciousness could at once overwhelm me ! And then a horrible scene took place. There gat the young nobleman—gagged and pinioned— powerless, yet writhing in the grasp of the two ruffians who held him, one by the shoulders, the other by the feet. And there stood the dead Fe- ‘icia’s father, his countenance fierce and implacable hike that ofan avenging fiend, And then that man 379 who had brought in the brazier, drew forth from it an iron the extremity of which was in a state of white heat; and the ruffian, clutching with his huge fist the long dark curling hair of the wretched young nobleman, held his head back over the chair. Then to his forehead he applied the branding instrument. Up to this point a horribie fascination had kept my looks riveted upon the appalling, ghastly scene: but now, with a dread convulsing shudder, I closed my eyes, and a hollow moan escaped my lips:—but to no louder sound could I give utter- ance. Then a-still greater faintness came over me—the room and everything it contained ap: peared to be turning round—my thoughts fell into confusion—I lost the power of discrimination— and yet there was a senso of stupendous horror sitting upon my soul like a weightof lead. From this condition I was suddenly startled up by a moan of the most rueful anguish that ever came from the lips of a human creature, I opened my eyes, and then I beheld a scene which was indeed a terrible sequence to all the preceding horrors. Lord Frederick’s hands were now un- bound—the gag was taken from his mouth—he was still sitting in the chair—and Mr. Gower was holding a small looking-glass before him in such a manner that the wretched young nobleman might contemplate the brand which had been in- delibly impressed upon his brow. the avenging father of Felicia expressed a diabo- ical malignity—the triumphant satisfaction of a fiend who has succeeded in accomplishing some wickedness more than usually diabolic. And there was the miserable Ravenscliffe, seated in that chair, to which he appeared riveted by the thousand fearful sensations which were crushing and overwhelming him!—there he sat, with the terrible mark of the searing iron upon his brow— the looking-glass reflecting his countenance of marred and ruined beauty! Notwithstanding all his crimes I felt for him at that moment ;—yes, I felt deeply: but I dared not suffer myself to think of what Juliet’s anguish and horror would be when she should behold her husband returning. to her in . such au awful state and should learn the reason for which a terrific vengeance had branded him as a felon ! ““ Monster !” suddenly ejaculated Ravenscliffe, starting up from the chair, and levelling the word with the bitterest, keenest spite at Mr. Gower. Then the young nobleman gave vent to a shriek in which there were alike the vibrations of physical and mental agony ; and throwing himself upon his knees, he rested his countenance upon the seat of the chair, sobbing and weeping, moaning and lamenting with a degree of anguish that was ter- rible to contemplate and terrible now to think of. Felicia’s father was indeed horribly avenged ! “ There are laws in England, sir,’’ exclaimed Ravenscliffe, suddenly starting up from the kneel- ing posture into which he had sunk down; “ and their vengeance shall overtake you, merciless mis-< creant that you are?” “Go and invoke the aid of those laws,” said Mr, Gower in accents of scornful defiance. “You may leave this house at any moment you think © fit, Rest assured that I shall not seek in flight to evade the consequences of the vengeance which I have wreaked. You will find me here if you want (COUN The features of ebook (COU