The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 246: what you’re looking at

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

A second glance convinced the surgeon that HRamsey’s eyes were open; and at the same instant that this certainty flashed to his mind, the hanged man moved his head slowly round. Tharston’s terror—evon if the feeling deserved go emphatic a name—was on!y momentary; and ' gushing up to the dissecting board, whereon he placed the light, he examined Ramsey's counte- mance with carnest attention fur a few instants. Yes—he was alive: and the surgeon hastened to remove the cord from his throat: then haviny pro- cure sonie restoratives from the pharmacy, he ap- plied them with such goed effect that the criminal speedily revived. Bat as he lay gasping with the efforts made by tne expanding lungs to resume their fenctions, it suddenly stuuck Thurston that he was now placed {n a mest painful position. What was be to do | with the man, should ke completely recover? To hand hin up again to ju tice were impussible: for such a step would render himself liable to the pe- naizies of the law fur having saborned individuals to obtain possession of the body by fulse and ille- gitimate means. Po tarn hiuw adrift iato the streets was an act from which ever the selfish miad of the surgeon revolted ;—and to keep him for any length of time at the house was dangerous as well as be- ing repugnant to his feelings. — ‘These reflecttons swept through the braia of Thurston as he stood by the side of the table, watching the spasmodic writhings which shook the -mrong frame:of the man-who was throwing off the eoils of death:—and uow consciousness slowly, slowly dawned in upon Ramsey’s soul—but ouly as a feeble lamp, taken into a charnel-house, gradually @od one by one lights up the horrors of the piace. First he remembcred that he had been doomed to die : next his imagination showed him the terrible paraphernalia of the scaffuld— the black beams— the cuuntiess crowds around ;—then the death- knell seeined again to be tolling in his ears, and his fancy revived the funeral service as it was droned forth by the Ordinary ;—and lastly there was the fall of the fatal drop, followed by the tre- mendous jerk experienced at the throat, and thy gush of blood, hot as fire, up into the burning, burstlig brain. Oh! how agonising was the spasm which shook the criminal from the hair of his head to the soles of his feet as the slow operation of a languidly re- viviug consciousness brought his memory down to this appalling oataStrophe ;—and a hollow moan of anguish burst frow bis lips. Then closing his eyes, he seemed to exert all his powers to steady, collect, ana settle his thoughts—so that he might assure himself how much was.a horrible dream and how much was a hideous rea ity. At length, slowly raising his heavy lids again, he fixed his looks searchingly opon the countenance of the medical man; and theuce his eyes wandered reand the ruow, as if he were unable to compre- hend where.he was or what phuse of existence, mortal or eternal, had succeeded the agunies pro- duced by the fall of the drop. But suddenly a light flashed upon his mind; and dhe convulsion which it caused him to experience un- cocked his tongue. “You are a surgeon,’ he said, in a faint voice — and then his eyes were fixed besecchingly upon him to whom those worda were addressed. “ Yes: but tranquillise yourself,” answered Thurston: “ I will not betray you.” A feeble smile moved the lips of Rameey as this assurance fell upon hisear ; and Thurston; lifting the still powerlesa wretch from the table, carried him into the surgery, where he placed him in an arm-chair before the cheerful fire that was still blazing in the grate. He next administered some hot brandy-and- water; and in another half-hour the criminal was resuscitated beyond all danger of a relapse. “T will now tell you,” said Thurston, “how [ pro- pose to act with regard to you. As a matter of course [ know who you are and all about you: but pru- dence requires that you should not know who I am or whereabouts in London this dwelling is situated. {t will be impossible to remove you hence for some hours: you will therefore occupy a bed beneath my roof until to-morrow night—during which interval you will be comparatively restored to strength. f will then adopt measures to place you in a condition of security and beyond the reach of danger.” With tears streamiog from his eyes did Ramsey pour forth his soul in gratitude to the surgeon who was thus performing—though ratber in obedience to necessity than to his own (ree will—the first generous aetion which had ever characterised his life. Circumstances now absolutely required that Mrs Thureton should be made acquainted with what had occurred. She knew that her husband expected a subject that night; and it was not, therefore, very difficult to break the truthto her. For it would have been tmpossible for the surgeon to lodge Ramsey in any bed-room without her knowledge; and her con nivance was also necessary to prevent the dumestice from suspecting that a guest was in the house unde circumstances so mysteriousas to lead them to hazard all kinds of disagreeable conjectures, He accordingly informed -Ramsey of the ne- cessity which compelled him to make a confidant of his wife; and he quitted the surgery to seek her chamber for that purpose. But scarcely had the door closed behind him, when a thousand wild and terrible ideas rushed to the imagination of the unhappy man whom he lef seated in the arm-chair. Was the alleged reason for the surgeon's absence merely a pretext to lull suspicion while he went out to fetch a constable —did the medical practitioner intend to consign him back again to the grasp ot justice’—should he have to mount the acaffold a second timef Oh! the thoughts were agonising— excruciating; and every instant they acquired a deeper and stronger hoki upon the miserable wretch’s mind, enfeebled and attenuated as it was by the ter- mble phase through which his existence had just passed. It never struck him, in the horrified disorder of that train of reflections which swept across his fevered imagination, that Thureton had no need to resort to eubterfuge if he were playing a treacherous part ; but that he might have alarmed the house, or have easily bound the resuscitated criminal in his chair until an officer was summened. No—nothing of all this pro. sented itself to Ramsey's coniempiation. His thoughts were in a state of horrible whirlwind: hie brain was a deliriam. He must fiy—Oh! he must fly from thie houce of an enemy-—from this abode of a man who was about to _—— up to justiee: he must fy—he must y -— E€ommicbeoo SS 235 G (©) |