Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 116: what you’re looking at

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

ee ee ee es JOSEPH WILMOT; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A MAN-SERVANT. 103 armed men leaping from their steeds, their weapons rattling and their heavy boots coming in strong concussion with the ground. Through the holes in the massive door I could catch the sounds of their voices likewise; and I recognised that of Philippo amongst them. Now there was no longer any uncertainty as to what my doom would be: I was about to be recaptured by those from whom I had escaped; and immense as their exasperation previously was against me, I knew that it must have been increased a thousand fold! CHAPTER XCIX, THE DUNGEON, THE banditti’s tower was reached; and several of the brigands were evidently awaiting our arrival. I had consequently no doubt that Mr. Dorchester, on locking me up in his cave, had at once mounted the horse and sped off to the tower to convey the news of my capture: but as I was at the time Firm was my resolve to make one desperate | using the table as a battering- ram against the effort at escape; and without vanity may I con-! huge door of the cavern, the noise of the departing scientiously affirm that never was I more intrepid than at that instant. The heavy bolt was drawn back—the door was thrown open: brandishing the knife I sprang forward—but how uselessly, how vainly!—for in a moment was I surrounded, ; ounced upon, secured, and rendered powerless, in the grasp of half-a-dozen of the banditti, The swords of a couple were even raised to cut me down: but Philippo interposed, and my life was thus rescued—but I knew not then for how long. Philippo however was so bitterly, so ferociously irate against me, that he thrust his clenched fist into my face,—telling me in English, and with the most hideous imprecations, that I should assuredly be put to as horrible a death as Marco Uberti could devise. This threat conveyed a piece of intelligence likewise: namely, to the effect that I was not to be deprived of life until the bandit-chief should have himself decided upon the means by which it was to be taken. And now, from the rear of the group, the villain Dorchester came forward; and as the glimmering light which beamed from heaven fell upon the miscreant’s countenance, I saw that he was regarding me with a malignant mockery of expression. “Rest assured,” I said, that the day will yet come when you, vile wicked man! will repent of what you have this night done. Never did you sustain the slightest injury at my hands. I have been your victim—and that is all. If it had proven your most relentless foe, you could not have shown a more demon-like implacability !” The hypocritical scoundrel grinned in my face, as he led forward the horse from which he had just dismounted, and which I recognised to be the one that I myself had previously ridden. I was now again placed upon the back of the animal: again too was a cord fastened to my ankles be- neath its belly; and my arms were pinioned. The banditti leapt into their own saddles: one of them took the reins of my horse—loaded pistols were kept levelled at me—I was surrounded by my captors—and in this manner the journey was resumed. We proceeded at a walking pace; but in half-an-hour the stronghold was reached ; and thus I found that Mr. Dorchester had deceived | ine as to its distance from the caye. But trifling indeed was this falsehood in comparison with the full measure of his villanous hypocrisy ; and little mattered the incident to me, considering the frightful dangers by which I was again sur- rounded, Vote in the midst, horse’s hoofs had been drowned in that din. The moment I was descried in the midst of the party of my captors, those who were waiting in the vicinage of the tower began to hurl vehement imprecations against me in their own passionate Italian language: they gesticulated too, with men- acing vehemence ; and there was every indication of a ferocious desire—a savage, satanic, yearning to wreak a frightful vengeance upon my head. I swept my looks around; and for an instant they settled upon the form of Signor Volterra, who was apparently lounging with an air of easy indiffer- ence against the wall of the tower. But no sooner did I thus catch a glimpse of him, than my eyes were averted again: for a sudden hope had sprung up in my heart—and Oh! it was too precious to be frustrated or foiled by any indiscretion on my part. Immediately afterwards Volterra moved away from the spot where I had thus seen him: and passing round the angle of the tower, was lost to my view. My cords were taken off; and I was forced to alicht. Then, in the grasp of five or six iron hands, I was conducted round to the entrance of the tower; we passed through the little vestibule whence opened the room where Olivia Sackville had been incarcerated—up the staircase—and into the banqueting-hall, at the extremity of which Marco Uberti was lolling back in his arm-chair, close by the table. That table was covered with bottles, glasses, cigars, pipes, tobacco, and all the requisites for an orgie. This, too, had been pro- longed up to that late hour of the night, or rather early one in the morning; and Marco Uberti was evidently so far advanced on the road of intoxica- tion, that his ebriety was all but complete. He could just keep himself up in the chair, and no more: and this ability to sustain himself at all, no doubt arose from the fact that hard drinking was habitual with him, and that there was a certain point beyond which no stupefying influence could reach. Five or six other banditti were keeping him company, and had reached precisely a similar condition. But what at first astounded me for the moment, was to behold Angelo Volterra swaying to and fro in his chair, in the midst of these ruf- fiins,—holding his glass high up, and vociferating forth a bacchanalian chaunt,—stopping abruptly, to fill Mareo Uberti a bumper, as well as to replenish the glasses of the other conyivialists. But only for that single 1n- stant did my amazement last, inasmuch as tle next moment I was struck by a thought which some- what enhanced the hope wherewith Volterra’s pre- sence outside the tower had previously inspired me. : In the grasp of the ferocious rufiians who had Giook (EO)