The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 343: what you’re looking at

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

ee erence acne aac ae n-—usnalty ss coli-bloeded, sw selfish, and ww jous,~-this hurdened veluptuary who had scarcely perienced a pang when he allowed his myrenidos drive Mrs. Fitzherbert from. his palatial mansion, profligate, whose whole. life was one monstrous tin felt his soul touched and bs heart subdued the piteous spectacle of that fair young creature's cruciating wee. Yea—he stramed her to his breast: and for a few nutes she: abandoned herself so entirely to: kim: st those caresses whick he at first lavished apon r threugit tie. tenderest compassion, beggn to ac- ire the fervour of other and less chastened feelings it, the instant that this fact burst upen her com- ehension, Octavia started from his arme-—-tore rself from his embrace,—and, while her couste- nee became scariet, her bosom palpitated, and her tole manner evinced a profound, angry agitation, e exclaimed, “ My heart is breaking, George—but ; me die eherishing the thought that you have red me not with a dishomouring passion, shonour has been my portion!” And, retreating a few paces from the chair which e had left, Octavia sank upon another seat. Her bonnet had fallen off in. the half-struggie rich had taken place when she thus wrested berself om the arms of the Prinee; and that splendid flood auburn hair which might have: formed the gtory & princess adored and worshipped as Tasse's Leo- iva, rolled in heavy and shining masses over her oulders. The sunbeams, penetrating between the +h curtains that shaded the windows, appeased to ingle with those luxuriant tresses, imparting to em so fine a gloss and so golden a ce at the head ef the fair being seemed radiant as that anangel! Alas! alas! though the glory atill ciz- od the brow, yet was the angel fallen; and though ‘aven’s own blessed light still shone around the head,. t had the heart changed into the dross ofearth. The rpent had loeked in upon the Eden of her heart— id foand its flowers rich in perfume and bright in 1e—~and hed changed that fair paradise into deso- tion. The tempter had taught her to contemplate ove as the rose of the soul: she had pincked it om its stem—she had pressed it to ner bosom— ui the hidden thorn had pierced. deep inte her art! And now, as the Prince gamed upos her-—while 1e arranged that flood-of glorious hair which swept rer her shoulders—he felt that he could not lese a \‘istreas so transcendently bemuatiful: nay—he even it that he loved her more than he had ever yet ved a woman in all his life. “QOctavia—sweet Octavia,” he said, after a long anee—and, as he spoke, he gradually advanced ose up to her,—*‘ talk not of a breaking heart, I im- lore you! There are two persons in this room; nd think you that there is only one heart which is flicted? By heavens, you do me an injustice!” e exclaimed, im an impassioned tone, as he seized ictavia’s right hand and clasped it forcibly. “Ob! your suffermgs, George, are light and jerable indeed when compared with mine,” said i¢ unhappy girl, with an expression of hopeless \isery in ber deep blue eyes and on her exquisitely uiselled lip. “ When affliction falls upon the heads ‘two persons who love tenderly, ’us the fate of the eaker to bear the heavier load; and if the sacrifice fa broken heart be demsnded, ’tis poor weman’s ivariable doem to became the victim. Yes—all the wistehednese as well as all. the dishonear nrust be borne by her! Blasted wath the lightnings of her paesen, she is stricken isto an early grave! Oh! these are truths to which Man cannot closs his eyes,” exclaimed Octavia,.with an agonised intonation that betrayed all-the poigmmmcy of her anguish: “and yet dees he persecute Woman with his unlewfal love! Why did you make me your victim f” she demanded, with an abrupiness that was wild and almost fierce: “wherefore did yeu pour Into my oe © eee Ge, Se i i seul the poison of your own passion? You found : me gay, and happy, and smiling—contented and innecem—an un creature: tersible experienceof love: and what have you made me ?—to what have yonredueed me? Where is the hope of my youth? Shivered, ike glass, into a net the — thomsand pieces that now reflect, whichever way I | tara, the bideous image af despair! Restore me to that pedestal of imecence whence you have dragged me down—give me back mime honeur ! You.are a Prince—the aon of a King—ene day to be a King yourseli—and you have power to do more than ordioary mortals: eles is your rank a meckery —your might a delusion! Prove yourself as great . as the world believes you to be,” exclaimed the . wretched girl, starting from her seat—half-maddened | by the excitement of her over-wronght feelings : “release me'from the spells wherewith you have en- : chanted me--raise the terrible incantation that reste : upon me ———” “ Octavia—Octavia!” cried the Prince, in a tone which appeared to have caught the. infeetion of her wildnese—for the fear that her senses were abandon- ing her had driven him almost to despair: “ I in:- plore you——by everything sacred, 1 conjure yon to tranquillise yourself !”’ “Oh! ’tis so easy for yon to preach tranguillity,” wwe; Fem =f © @*200F7 GF Be she exclaimed, bitterly,—“ you who suffer so lightly! : But the time may come, however,” she added, with — a strange abrupiness and an expkeasion of counte- mance that seriously alarmed the Prince,—* the time may come when remorse shall tonch your soul— - when the worm of compunetion shall guaw your heart;—and then, aithough your sovereign rank may gilda your agonies, yet shall the memory of the poer girl whose leve you won and whose heart you broke, return again and again to torture yeu when stretehed upon a restless couch you court alumber in vain, and when no eye sees you azve His frem whose presence no man can fly !’’ “Octavial you are killing yourself with excite- ment,” cried the Prince: “aod you are driving ms to desperation ! humour?—why reproach me now! Sesroely ten minutes have elapsed since you were.almost happy in the conviction that my heart is Gaine—indissolubly thine——"’ What means thie changs ef ' “No—no—I was not happy!” she exclaimed, struggling to release her hands from the grasp in which her royal lover again held them. “ And if I were, i was criminal on my part to beso! Foe new ideas spring up every moment mM my mind— new Imtuitions give an impulse to wy thoughts The walls of this room are disselving into thin air,’ she continued, stretching out her arms wildly and giaring with terrible excitemant around: “ the world without becomes revealed to me—the whole earth develops itself to my experience—the human heart is opened to my penetration—-—” “ Merciful God—she is raving I” cried the Prines, = COMM CLOOO S co