The Mysteries of London, Vol. IV — page 309: what you’re looking at

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

B04 THE MYSTORNIES OF LONDON, the cezamg of his chamber; and, with eyes rivetted upon it, hoe lay reftecting what it could possibly be. The old man was half childish; and the strangest conjectures passed through his mind. Atlength he grew frightened: an unknown terror stole gradually upon him—and he rang his bell violently. Ina few minutes the two female domestics entered the room, having hastily huddled on some clothing; and they found their master gazing intently up at the ceiling, with a wild vacancy in the eyes. Their own looks instantly took the same direction ; and one of them suddenly exclaimed, with shuddering horror, “ It is blood!” They then hurried up-stairs; and a fright- ful spectacle met their view. Their mistress lay upon the floor, with her throat cut from ear to ear; and the carpet was completely saturated with her blood. Screams and shrieks burst from the lips of the horror-strickon woman; and rushing down Stairs, they rashly communicated to Mr. Gamble, without any previons warning or preparation, the dreadful tragedy which had been enacted. The flickering, decaying lamp of the old man’s intellect suddenly burnt up vividly for a few moments: tho full powers of reason returned ;—he comprehended the appalling news which were thns unguardedly made known to him; and with a horrible Jamenta- tion he sprang from his bed. With incredible speed did he ascend to his wife's chamber ; and when the awful spectacle met his eyes, he threw up his arms in despair, gave vent to a piteous cry, and sank down on the blood-stained corpse. Meantime one of the servants had hastened nest door to alarm Mr. Pomfret; and when that gentleman, accompanied by two or threo of his own domestics, appeared on the scene of murder, assistance was immediately ofrered to Mr. Gamble. But all endeavours to re- cover him were ineffectual: the shock ho hed re- coired was a death-blow—and life was extinct! A. few questions hastily put to the old man’s servants elicited many facts dreadful for Mr. Pom- fret to hoar. He now learnt enough to convinco him that his daughter had long maintained an illicit connexion with a handsome young dragoon—that her lover had been admitted the night before the one of the murder into the house—and that he must have been the author of the dreadfuldeed. Farther investigation corroborated this belief: the uniform was found, and a suit of Mr, Gamble’s apparel had disappeared ;— the plate, jewels, and money were likewise gone. The distracted father, having heard a long time previously that Leonard Mitchell had enlisted in a dragoon regiment, immediately sus- pected that he must bo the criminal; ani this idea was confirmed by the discovery of some letters in Ellen’s desk. Information of the murder and rob- bery was accordingly given to the proper authori- ties; and Mr. Pomfret, crushed to the very dust by the weight of misfortune, crept back to his own cheerloss dwelling —there to meditate upon the closing scene of tho tragedy in which his own con- duct had originally made his poor daughter the heroine. Bitterness was in the wretched man’s soul —horror in his eyes-—spasmodic shuddering in all his limbs; and, when he contomplated his child’s horrible end and his own ruined fortunes, he felt indeed that he had nothing left worth living for, The cup of his adversity was not, however, quite full yet: but in a few hours it was orerflowing—for his head clerk arrived in a cab, and, rushing into the parlour without ceremony, anounced to him that the officers of justice were in search of him, a true bill of indictment having been found against him for certain frauds in his commercial transactions, “Thank you—thank you, for coming to give me this timely warning,” said Mr. Pomfret, pressing his clerk’s hand with painful violence: “I will depart immediately;”—~and he staggered from the room. The clerk waited five minutes, and began to grow impatient: ten minutes elapsed—and stil] his master did not reappear. Tho man rose and rang tho bell furiously to summon one of the domestics; but at the same instant the constables entered the house. These officials, having learnt from the servant who admitted them, that Mr. Pomfret was at home, pro- ceeded to search the dwelling; and the clerk, now entertaining the worst fears, accompanied them to the ruined merchant’s bed-chamber. There those fears mot with immediate confirmation: Mr. Pom- fret had puta period to his existence—he had hanged himself to a strong nail in his sleeping apartmont! The body was instantly cut down, and medical assist- ance promptly obtained: but the wretched suicide was no more, In the evening of that same day a man was arrested under suspicious circumstances at Dover. The news of tho awful occurrences in Stamford Street had not reached that town at tho time—for there was neithor railway nor electric telegraph between London and the Kentish coast in those days: but the individual alluded to, had presentod a quantity of plate st a pawnbroker's shop, and, not being able to give a satisfactory account of how it came into his possession, was detained until a constable arrived to take him into custody. On thie ensuing morning the tidings of the murder in Lon- don reached Dover; and the particulars given by tho newspapers of the preceding evening were ample enough to identify the person undor arrest with the Leonard Mitchell who was accused of desertion, murder, and robbery. Ile was accord- ingly sent under a strong escort to tho metropolis, where, on his arrival, he was immediately lodged in Newgate. In due course his trial came on: he was found guilty upon evidence the most conclu- Bive:—and, upon being called upon to allege any- thing wherefore sentenco of death should not be passed, ho addressed the Judge in the following manner :—“ I acknowledge, my lord, that I am guilty of the dreadful crime imputed to me: and although it be too late—far too late to express contrition now, I nevertheless declare that I am deeply, deeply penitent. My lord, lost—degraded— criminal—and condemned, as I stand hore in your presence, I was once as sincerely attached to yirtuo as any man or woman who now hears me. Eyen when adversity entered the paternal dwelling, ravaging it with the desolating fury of an army, I yielded to no evil temptation: neither did my con- fidence in the justice, the goodness, and the wisdom of heaven abate. I enlisted, my lord, in order to obtain an honest livelihood, and to stifle in the bustle of a new state of existence the painful rosii- niscences of blighted hopes and crushed affections. The officers who have appeared before your lord- ship this day, have all admitted, in reply to the question I put to them, that up to the time when ] was sentenced to three hundred lashes, I had nover even received a reprimand nor had been onceroported for the slightestirregularity. Butfrom the moment thatthe first blow ofthe torturing and degrading wea- pon fell upon my back, my existence assumed a now phase—my soul underwent a sudden and immediate —— EConnicloooks (CO)