The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 140: what you’re looking at

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

— | a En: gees, ce -— = THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. from the heart: and her teeth chattered as if it were in the middle of snowy January or bleak March. The house which this lady and her male com- panion were approaching, atood in the midst of Spacious grounds; and the front garden was en- closed with a wall having a carriage-gate and a smaller door in the centre. But the gentleman and lady paused not at this entrance ;: they akirted the wall—turned the angle—passed round to the back of the house—and entered the premiszes by a door which was unfastened. Ata distance of about fifty yards a dim light appeared amidst the trees of the garden in the rear of the house: and in the direction of this light did the gentleman conduct the lady. ‘Who is there? — and what are they doing?” suddenly demanded the lady, in a subdued voice of hysterical quickness, as if she full well divined the nature of the answer she should receive to her question, and shuddered at the bare thought thereof. ‘‘There is only one person on that spot,” re- turned the gentleman, ina harsh and almost brutal tone: “and he is digging a grave.” “ A grave !” murmured the lady, repeating the awfal words in that mechanical and involuntary way which denotes the profound concentration of the direst horror. “Yes—a grave,” exclaimed her companion, with a bratal abruptness that was alike undisguised and unmistakable. “Surely you might have suspected as much when you saw the light of the lantern gleaming yonder. Besides, what the devil else did we come hither for but to bury the dead man ? —and if he’s to be buried, there must be a grave, I suppose.” “O God! do not talk in this heartless—callous —brutal manner!” exclaimed the unhappy lady, in a tone of the most touching, penctrating en- treaty. “Then don’t be a fool and give way to any maudlin sentimentalism at this moment,” retorted the individual whom we must style a gentleman, merely to distinguish his rank in life—although in conduct he assuredly merited the appellation no more than the British Aristocracy deserves to be called humane, or England a free country—the very reverse being the case in both instances. “Why treat me with this fiendish harshness?” demanded the lady bitterly, as if her feelings were ' goaded to a pitch of desperation. “Have you any Ee) oe ee eee eee right now—after all that has occurred—to punish or even taunt me for the past?” * Come—let’s have no quarrelling, if you please,” said the gentleman, sternly. “You hang back? By heaven——” “Oh! spare me—spare me!” murmured the wretched lady, imploringly, as she stopped short and seemed sinking to the ground. “I can not— will not approach that grave !” “Then, by heaven! you shall sleep in it your- self, along with your lover!” replied her companion, seizing her by the arm and shaking her with a . ‘raffian violence. “What! would you murder me?” she ejacu- lated, in gasping horror and agonising affright: and as she gazed up at her ruthless husband—for | such indeed was her companion—the moonbeams fell upon her countenance, showing how terribly it 127 was convulsed and distorted, all its beauty oblite rated as it were for the moment. «‘ Come—no more of this nonsense—or you will put me into a rage and provoke me to do you a mischief,” said her husband. “I swore that you should accompany me this night—and indeed, why -: should you not? ‘Tis your work, not mine, that is being done: and you ought to be infinitely obliged to me for taking all this trouble to conceal forever | the traces of an occurrence that might readily be construed into a crime.” “TJ will accompany you,” said the lady, in a tone of desperate resignation, as if the truth and justice of her husband's last speech had sunk profoundly into her soul. “Yes—I will accompany you throngh this tremendous ordeal, since you wish it-——’ 3 t * Aye—and I command it,” he observed, with that brutal ferocity which characterised his lan- guage and his conduct towards his wife, who, guilty though she might have been, yet deserved not the treatment which this coward ruffian was observing in regard to her. “Be it so,” she said, meekly: “you command— and I obey. Only, for God’s sake—I conjure you —I implore you—speak less harshly to me—for I am miserable, very miserable, I can assure you!” And she burst into an agony of weeping. Her husband suffered her thus to pour forth the torrents of her ineffable affliction without breath- ing a word of solace or pardon. In sullen and in- human reserve—in profound and cruel silence—he stood gazing upon her as she wept. At the expira- tion of two or three minutes she became calmer: her grief had found a vent—her surcharged bosom was relieved—and taking her husband’s arm once more, she suffered him to lead her forward to the spot where the light was still remaining stationary in its sinister dimness. Concealed amongst a group of trees, and with a lantern placed upon the ground, a man was dig- ging a grave. On hearing footsteps approach, he desisted from his work; and, leaning upon his sho- vel as he stood in the pit which he was making, his head and shoulders only were visible as he looked in the direction of those persons who were advanc- ing. The dim rays of the lantern shone mistily upon his countenance—but enough to reveal ite ghastly repulsiveness and diabolical expression to the eyes of the lady as she tremblingly clung to the arms of her husband. “Q God! what a hideous-looking man!” she murmured, in a rapid whisper to herself rather than to her companion: and she held back in terror, as if it were a corpse that waa gaziog out of the grave at her. : * Hold your tongue, you focl,” growled her hus- band, savagely: “he is an excellent fellow—and I don’t knew what the devil I should have done with- out him. Well,” he exclaimed aloud, addressing himself to the man, as he dragged rather than ied his unfortunate wife nearer to the grave,—“ hard at work, eh ?” “T've been here these two bours,” replied the man; “and you see I have made pretty good pro- gress. You told me it was to be deep ——” “Yes: we don’t want the corpse to be easily raked up by the first gardener who comes to work in the place,” said the gentleman, with a chuckle which sounded horribly upon his wife’s ears. “ My EOMICOOOKS. conn