Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 331: what you’re looking at

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

. rr 318 JOSEPH WILMOT; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A MAN-SERVANT, honourably, truly and faithfully : each fearing to | the wretched Lanover to perish miserably in the act treacherously on account of the other; then coffin wherein he was sealed up! No, no—[ could should I feel myself safe, because it would be downright murder to leaye me to perish in the grave to which I should be consigned !’—In this Sense was it that Lanover spoke, though at far greater length and using other arguments to en- force his view of the case. And then too, he offered that bribe, the amount of which I have already specified to your lordship. And I yielded !” “You yielded,’ said the Count of Livorno; “and then doubtless you were put in communi- cation with the Harl of Eccleston himself ?” “Yes, my lord,” responded the surgeon. “ That very same evening the Earl of Hecleston visited the prison; and the whole plan was finally settled in Lanover’s presence. It was easy to perceive that Lanover had some powerful hold upon the Harl—though what its nature might be, I know not. However, all was arranged; and Lanover compelled both myself and the Earl to take oaths of the most awful solemnity—oaths which I shud- der to think of, but which not for worlds would I have violated !’” “ Proceed,” said the Count of Livorno. “Pass over that fearful portion of your narrative: we can full well comprehend that aman of a desperate disposition would not commit himself to such a hideous ordeal without taking every guarantee for his eventual security.” “T have little more to say, my lord,” continued the surgeon: “a few words will suffice to explain the rest. I myself would have nothing to do with the making-up of the soporifie: I was so fearful of | detection! But I told the Earl of Eccleston what | he was to ask for, at what chymist’s he could pro- cure it, and the pretext he was to make for requir- ing such adrug. Then, in pursuance of the pre- arranged plan, Lanover affected to be taken with indisposition: I attended upon him: I conveyed to him the drug which the Earl had procured; | and it produced the desired effect. It was for me to pronounce an opinion upon his death—or rather his apparent death; and I declared that it arose from natural causes.” The surgeon stopped short: there was a silence of nearly a minute: and then he added in a low deep voice, * Your lordship has told me that there was 2 witness to last night’s proceedings; and therefore I need not explain how the entranced Lanover was brought back to life.” “No-—it is unnecessary,” replied the Count of Livorno. “ There is however something which I must add,” continued the surgeon. “ First of all it was the temptation of a heavy bribe which led me into this plot; but when once embarked in it, all the specu- lative interest of a mind devoted to science and the medical profession became enlisted therein. Of this I solemnly assure you! But I have still some- | And such a man! not do it! If all the world’s wealth had been placed at my feet, I would not have consented to become an accomplice in so hideous a treachery. I felt that it would: be as much murder as if I had taken a knife and plunged it into the prisoner’s breast—or as if I had prescribed a deadly venom instead of a soporific the trance-like effects of which would in time pass away.” “ All that you have just told us,” said the Count of Livorno, “disposes me to deal most leniently with you. Proceed. Have you aught more to “Nothing, my lord,” responded the surgeon, with a brightening-up of his countenance at the merciful assurance which he had just received, — “unless it be that the Earl of Eccleston, finding I was firm in my resolve to remain faithful to my oath, and that I shrank in horror from the hideous perfidy at which he had hinted, endeavoured to make me believe that I had misunderstood him. I chose not to prolong the conversation; and all took place according to our pre-arranged plans. By accident I lost one of my instruments last night: my present object in coming hither was to search for it, or to ascertain from the gravediggers whether they had discovered it:—but your lordship has produced it as an evidence that all the proceed- ings of the past night are indeed known unto ou.” It would be impossible for me to describe the fearful interest with which I had listened to this narrative—still more impossible to convey an idea of the sickening horror which I felt at that portion which revealed another phase of such infernal blackness in the character of the Earl of Eecles- ton. Oh, how cold ran the blood in my veins! —or rather, how it stagnated into glacial freezing there! And I observed too that it was almost with an equal sensation of horror that the Count of Livorno listened to the same episode: but on my part, to this feeling of horror one of poignant distress was superadded. IL was compelled to re- gard the Earl of Eccleston as a very monster of iniquity, capable of the blackest crimes, and with- out a single redeeming quality! “I promised,” said the Count of Livorno, after a brief interval of silence which followed the surgeon’s concluding speech,—* I promised to deal mercifully with you, and my word shail be kept. If you were handed over to the grasp of justice, the galleys for the remainder of your life would be your doom. But to this extremity I will not pro- ceed. Yet guilt such as your’s must not go un- punished. For it is guilt—and of a deep dye! You have proved the means of cheating justice of its due: you have given liberty to a man whom the law had stricken with its righteous vengeance. It is the same as if you had thing more to say: for I have promised to tell you | liberated a ravenous tiger from its den, or a veno- everything. The Earl of Eccleston came to me yesterday afternoon, and threw out hints to the effect that it was dangerous to carry the plot any farther. I listened in silent horror. He inti- mated that his purse would enrich me if I would consent to fall into his views. the horror of my soul burst forth in wild ejacu- lations. That execrable English nobleman would have made mea murderer !—he would have lef mous serpent from its cage. For whatsoever crimes this wretch may hereafter commit against society, you are fearfully responsible. But you have done even more! You are horrified at the idea of becoming a murderer, even indirectly : and Then was it that | yet circumstances might haye rendered you a murderer! What if the suggestions of your scientific skill had failed? what if you had caused | to be given a drop too little or a drop too much of DOOLK CO