Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 51: what you’re looking at

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

38 JOSBPH WILMOT; OR, THE was again speedily led to the conclusion that the whole adventure was connected with a mistake which could only be accounted for by the suppo- sition that I was taken for somo one else. But now it occurred to me that after all it might prove a very fortunate incident. I was being borne rapidly out of the metropolis—that metropolis where dangers environed me, and where murder- ous intents might be tracking my footsteps. Wildly, and vividly, and terribly came back to my mind those warnings which Annabel had uttered, —warnings against her own father and the villain Taddy,—and therefore, instead of beimg grieved at an occurrence which was thus wafting me away from the scene of such frightful perils, I began to rejoice and to thank heaven for having so mysteriously and wonderfully saved me therefrom. As the sense of increasing security thus grew within me, I thought that 1t would be nothing less than downright madness to make another attempt to stop the chaise and give explanations to the footman. No-—I would suffer the equipage to carry me as far as it might; for I reasoned to my- self that whomsoever I should meet at the end of the journey, could not possibly be regarded as more formidable than the vile humpback and the detested Taddy. So I remained quiet inside the vehicle, and fell into a train of refle¢tion in which Annabel’s image was uppermost ; and as [reviewed all that had taken place on this memorable night, I felt that the gratitude of an entire existence was due to that amiable and beauteous creature. The streets of London were now left behind— the chaise was dashing along a road bordered with villa-residences—these dwellings soon became more and more’ straggling—until at length they yielded altogether to hedges and trees. We were now therefore out in the open country; and the fresh breeze of morning—for it was considerably past one o’clock—fanned my feverish cheeks. A sense of weariness came over me—an irresistible desire to compose myself to slumber; and be- ginnine to feel that the air was somewhat sharp and cold, but yet not choosing to exclude it alto- gether by drawing up the wmdows, I merely put down the veil and folded the shawl more closely around me. I was sinking off to sleep when the equipage turned abruptly out of the main road, with such a sweep into a bye-lane that I was startled with the apprehension it was about. to upset. So great was the terror thus suddenly caused, that I was aroused into complete wakeful- ness again; and glancing first from one window— then from the other—I perceived a high hedge on either side; so that the equipage was embowered as it were in the verdure which darkened the view. Along this shady lane it proceeded for about ten minutes—when it entered another main zoad, and stopped in front of a spacious mansion . standing about a hundred yards back, and with an inter: vening shrubbery. Of all the numerous windows, | lights appeared to be burning in only three on the ground-floor; and as the equipage came to a sudden halt, I likewise observed two gentlemen standing at the iron-gate which was set in the boundary-wall, and which stood open. Now, I thought to myself, the mistake would be dis- covered : and what if, after all, I should experience gome very rough treatment in the paroxysm of tage which disappointment would be so well cal- MEMOIRS OF A MAN-SERVANT. 2 ee culated to excite on the part of these individuals ? What, too, if the female whom they were no doubt expecting, and for whom I had been taken, were to be made the object of some dreadful crime— even murder P—and that this doom might be in- flicted upon me before it was discovered that I was not the right person? I was suddenly petri- fied with horror—stricken with consternation—as these reflections swept rapidly through my brain. The door of the chaise was quickly opened by one of the two gentlemen; and there was light enough to show me that he was young and hand- some. : “You must alight here,” he said, in a tone which indicated the resoluteness of a sternly set- tled purpose: at the same time he reached for- ward his arm to aid me in descending from the vehicle. I obeyed mechanically. I strove to speak, if it were but a single word, to clear up the mistake: but I could not. My tongue clave to the roof of my mouth: my faculties were paralyzed with con- sternation. I descended: the two gentlemen took my arms—and hurried me through the shrubbery: into the mansion. Another footman was standing on the threshold of the front door; and the in- stant we entered, he closed it. I was now ina large and handsome marble hall—still sustained between the two gentlemen, one of whom I have already noticed as young and handsome: the other was an elderly person, some five or six years on the shady side of fifty. Here I stopped suddenly short: the faculty of speech appeared to be re- turning—and I was about to say something, when the elder of the two gentlemen, whose sallow and wrinkled countenance denoted a stern and rigid decision of purpose, said curtly, “Not a word! You must submit.” The blood froze in my veins: all kinds of horrors: sprang up like ghastly spectres before me: I was’ smitten with the conviction that murder was in- tended—and I the victim! A side-door opened 3: and I was hurried into a sumptuously furnished dining-room, where a clergyman in canonicals and” an elderly lady were seated. This elderly lady was exceedingly pale; and I instantaneously read upon her countenance that same air of stern decision which I had already noticed upon the features of the two gentlemen. Wax-lights were burning upon a table in the centre of the room: but they only’ lighted it dimly—and the remote corners of that spacious apartment were enveloped in obscurity. © ~ “Can this be Alicia?” quickly cried the lady, as if seized with a suspicion of something wrong. “Pardon me—forgive me—for God’s sake, do me no harm!” I cried, my tongue now completely unlocked; and I sank down upon my knees in the midst of that group of four by whom I was sur ‘ rounded. “Perdition!” ejaculated the younger of the two gentlemen. “Whom have we here ?’—and the veil was snatched up from my face with such sudden violence that the very bonnet was torn off my head. 2 aie “Treachery !” was the instantaneous ejaculation on the part of the elderly gentleman and lady— while the young gentleman stood stupified with amazement; and the clergyman dropped from his hand a book which he had been holding. “It is a boy!” cried the elderly gentleman. Gbooks (E@) im