The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 367: what you’re looking at

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

SFR hage animal, a strange and terrific sound denoting its mortal agony ; while the victorious rhinoceros, drawing back for an instant, rushed forward and inflicted another hideous ripping wound. The Burker meanwhile had been gasing with indescribable feelings of mingled awe and horror: but he now tarried to behold no more; for he dreaded lest the conquering brute should seek him as another victim. He plunged farther and far- ther into the jungle—his brain diszy with the idea of all the horrors that surrounded him, and lost in an appalling wonderment as to what new spectacle might suddenly burst upon his view. He drew near a forest which stretched far as the eye could reach upon his right hand; and if he had been skilled in the vegetable history of Hindo- satan, he would have known that it was an immense assemblage of those superb teak-trees which rival the British oak in the building of ships. Avoid- ing the forest as much as possible, on account of the double perils of boa constrictors and Stranglers, the Burker turned away to the left; and another hour’s journey brought him to a new scene of verdure. Here towering palm-trees were laden with their fruit—that fruit which he could not reach: but he beheld countless monkeys running up the stems and playing amongst the branches. Mangoes were there growing in wild abundance: but the Burker dared not eat of them, for he was afraid of being poisoned. Pepper-vines and car- damom-planta were richly interspersed around: the plantain and the jack were likewise flourishing there. The beams of the vertical sun were now fraught with so intense a saltriness that the Burker would have given worlds to be enabled to seek some grateful shade: but for the reasons above set forth, he dared not. He was athirst; for since he had left his cavern he had found no pool nor stream with whose waters he might ‘moisten his feverish lips. He dragged himself painfuiy along: but in another half-hour he reached a broad stream. Here he sat down to slake his thirst and bathe his feet: but scarcely had he taken off his shoes, when a long terrific heed was thrust up above the sur- face of the water at a little distance; and the gaping jaws showed frightful ranges of teeth. With a cry—e perfect yell of agony, which re- sounded through those wilds—the Burker started up to his feet, snatched up his shoes, and darted away. On glancing back, he bebeld a tremendous alligator emerge from the river ; and more quickly sped the affrighted wretch, his mind suffering ex- crucistions as terrific as if he were actually in the Jaws of the stapendous reptile. But when he again looked round, he perceived that he was safe from pursuit; and he sank exhausted and in de- spair upon some masses of granite rock. Tears coursed their way down the face of the unhappy man. He who had never known what compuno- tion was when about to perpetrate a crime—be who had even done murder’s work without re- morse—now wept at the fearful position in which he found himself. Whichever way he tyrved, spectacles of horror or of danger—indeed, of both combined—presented themselves. The graes under his feet—the trees above his head—the brakes on one hand—the thickets on the other—the very streams with whose waters he sought to slake his thirst, were all teeming with living beings threaten- THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. Or ) an Bae ® @ ing him with a horrible death. Little had the mus- ereant ever thought of a future state or of punish- ments in a world to come: but now it seemed to him as if there were veritably a bell upon earth, affording a frightful foretaste of the one that was t> be experienced hereafter ! The Burker put on his shoes; and wiping away the tears which had flowed down his cheeke, he applied himself to the contents of the gourd in order to acquire the reckless courage of despera- tion. He now looked sbout him to aecertain the nature of the spot where he hed sunk down ez- hausted. We have already said that he hed thrown himself upon some granite blocks; and s closer inspection showed him that they belonged to the ruins of an edifice: These ruins occupied about a quarter of an acre; and the wanderer walked slowly around them. Whatever the edifice might have been, it had almost completely yielded ta the effects of time or else to some convulsion of nature; for it had fallen into a destruction that well nigh rendered it a heap of shapeless, mean- ingless ruins. But presently the Burker discovered the remnant of a gateway, the upright pillars of which still remained.. He looked in; and the burning beams of the vertical eun fell fully apon a figure of hideous appearance and coloseal dimen- sions, which appeared to be seated upon an eleva- tion suoh as athrove or an altar. Despite the potent alchohol which he had imbibed from the gourd, the wanderer’s mind was still so attenuated as to be keenly susceptible of the most startling impressions; and his first idea was that a country which teemed with such monsters of the brate creation, might likewise possess human beings of a giant shape. But it was only an effigy of black marble on which the Burker was gasing—« Hindoo deity that had survived, so to speak, the ruin of the temple which enshrined it. The Burker econ saw that it’ was only an i : he gathered courage—and he penetrated a little way farther, taking a position where the overhanging masees of a once shapely masonry him from the beams of the sun. There he sat down ; and open- ing his knapsack, partook of hie provisions. An- other application to the gourd strengthened his mind in the sense of a reckless desperation: and presently sleep stole upon his eyes. For about a couple of bours the wearied wan- derer thus slept; and as he slowly awoke, it was to encounter the aspect of the colossal effigy of black marble. For a few moments he gazed with an appalled consternation: for during the interval of slumber he had forgotten where he was and what object he had last seon. By degrees however the recollection came back to his mind; and it was also by degrees that he grew aware of some life- like motion on the surface of the black marble effigy. He looked with increasing horror in his gase and in his mind; and bis hair stood on end as he gradually comprehended the hideous truth. Numerous enakes, of small dimensions, were creep- ing over the Hindoo deity,—some twining around ite brow—others dragging their slimy folds over ite face —eome twisting around ite arms — some winding about its legs—others hissing as they trailed their lengths upon ite body. The Burker discerned likewise that these reptiles were hooded like the cobra, though they were of a different }oolour. They were indeed the manilla snakes — GOMGOOO (G (CO