The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 316: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTERIES. 301 he were standing upon the threshold of paradise. But—Ah! all in a moment a sound as of a window opening met his ears. With suspended breath he listened : yes—it was a window being lifted up—and within that room too! Holy God! what did it mean? — could the young girl be meditating sui- cide? Horrified by the thought, his Royal Highness burst the door open, There was no light in the room ;—of that he was already aware, since he had vainly applied his eyes to the key-hole on quitting the chamber for the proscribed ten minutes. But the moon shone brightly into the room through the oper casement. A ery of horror burst from the lips of the Prince as the truth became suddenly revealed to him. Springing to the window, he louked forth—and his brain reeled with horror as he beheld the orphan descending from that dizzy height of two storeys into what appeared, as he glanced down, to be a dark abyss below. A sensation of sickness seized upon him—a vertigo sprang whirlingly up in his head—he clapped his hand to his brow, and, staggering back, would have fallen on the floor had he not leant against the table which had been drawn up close to the window in order that the rope might be fastened to one of its legs. Recovering himselfalmost immediately, the Prince looked. forth again—and his eyes met the upturned countenance of the orphan girl as she paused to rest her light feet for a single instant on the projecting wood-work overhanging the front-door. The moon shone as though all its effulgence were poured upon the face of Camilla—that beauteous face on every lineament of which was depicted the noble heroism of a virgin resolute in saving her honour or perishing in the attempt. “ Camilla—sweet Camilla—dearest Camilla,” mur- mured the Prince in a tone of almost anguished entreaty, as the rapid glance which he threw around the Square showed him that no one was nigh to be- hold this tremendous scene: “remain there, I im- plore you, until 1 come down to receive you in my arms !” But, darting up at him a look full of indescribable contempt and scorn—for the disposition of the brave ' girl was too noble to harbour hatred—she once more trusted her light aerial form to the rope, and glided in safety upon the pavement of St. James’s Square. The Prince of Wales beheld the issue of the heroic deed, and then breathed more freely—for the danger that the orphan would be dashed to pieces and her death traced to his persecution of her, had suddeuly passed away. Considerably relieved in one sense, but bitterly disappointed and chagrined in another, he hastily drew up the rope and closed the window: then, after a few moments’ deliberation with himself whether he should arouse Mrs. Brace to acquaint her with what had oceurred, or whether he should return to Carlton House and send her a note with full particulars in the morning, he decided upon the latter course. For he remembered that the amorous milliner had some little intrigue of her own in progress; and he therefore thought it better not to disturb her. He was turning away from the chamber whence Camilla Morton had so strangely and desperately escaped, when something white upon the carpet attracted his notice; and as the objeot resembled a letter, he picked it up. Anda letter it was—doubt- less dropped accidentally by the maiden in the hurry of what may be almost literally termed her precipitate flicht. Curiosity prompted the Prince of Wales to examine the note by the light of the moon, which was shining so powerfully that it made the atmosphere resemble a halo of transparent quicksilver: but the instant that his eyes fell on the address of that letter he started as if a viper had suddenly bitten him. The letter dropped from his hand—and this in- cident appeared to recall him to himself. Picking it up again, he thrust it into his breast —and then quitted the apartment with a gloom upon his coun- tenance darker than the obscurity of the ante- chamber which he traversed or of the corridor into which he thence passed. Groping his way to the staircase, the Prince of Wales lost no time in departing from a house where in addition to being thoroughly baffled by Camilla’s heroic flight, he had just received asevere shock from the ylimpse which he had caught of the address on the outside of the letter. CHAPTER LXXXV. ANOTHER INCIDENT OF THE SAME NIGHT. THE reader will not require to be told that it was no ordinary amount of courage which had sustained Camilla Morton throughout the desperate proceed- ing which she adopted to save her honour from the libidinous profligate by whom it was menaced. But the instant she touched the pavement with her feet —the moment that her safety was assured and the tremendous gulf passed—a powerful reaction took place in her mind, and she burst into a flood of tears. and scarcely had she dragged herself round the corner of the adjacent street leading from St. James’s Square into Pall Mall, when she was com- pelled to lean against some railings for support. At this moment a man and a woman passed that way : but beholding a genteelly-dressed young girl without bonnet, cloak, or scarf, and apparently couvulsed with grief, they stopped and spoke to her. “ What ails you, Miss?” inquired the woman, as- suming as pleasing and mild a tone of voice as possible—which was not very difficult, by the bye, inasmuch as her tones were naturally far from dis- agreeable, Camilla raised her eyes the moment those words, pronounced by one of her own sex, met her ears; and, encountering the pale but rather pretty face of a young woman who looked kindly upon her, she became animated with hope and confidence. “J have just escaped from the power of some one who menaced me with violence and outrage,” she said, in a hasty and excited tone; “and 1 implore you to see me to a place of safety. I have but little money about me at this moment: but I possess ample means of procuring funds to-morrow ; Well, you take the young Jady along with you,” said the man; “and I'll just go about the little business I have in hand.” Camilla started at the roughness of the voice which thus sounded on her ears and which formed, Her limbs suddenly appeared to fail her— | a ee a need ——~_ so disagreeable a contrast with that of the woman: | eee OS Ce Ch Fr —_—__— (C(O) @ 6)(0)©) im SCO