The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 134: what you’re looking at

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

a tie n aod — oe ad “ = ® aa S 7 i” ’ ¥ = nn ans SIR RICHARD STAMFORD 107 Page crept up to the side of his wretched companion, and, taking his hand, endeavoured to console him; but many minutes elapsed ere Sir Richard Stamford could so far recover himself as to bring his strange and terribly romantic narrative to a conclusion. “Yes,” he resumed, in a low, deep, and profoundly mournful tone, “at that moment when I beheld her lying dead before my eyes, I would have given worlds to recall her back to life. And I remember that, suddenly starting from the stupefaction into which the frightful tragedy had plunged me, I felt a panic terror come over me, an appalling dread as if I myself had murdered her! I also recollect that, rushing wildly away from the scene of horror, I threw up the window opening on the lawn, and darted madly forth into the fresh air, that the midnight breeze might cool my burning brain. As if demented, or possessed of an evil spirit that was raging within me, I ran frantically on until I reached the park; and then suddenly stopping and turning round —I know not under what strange in- fluence — I beheld flames gushing forth from the windows of the dining-room. Resuming the wild and unnatural speed that had previously hurried me away from the manor, I flew back toward the burning pile; but scarcely had I emerged from the park and entered the shrubbery, when three or four men sprang upon me from the dark shade of the evergreens, and I was overpowered in an instant. The wretches bore me away to the adjacent road, thrust me into a covered cart that was waiting there, and gagged me to prevent my voice from alarming the domestics and tenants whose forms I had seen moving rapidly about the mansion, in the terrific light of the conflagration. The vehicle rolled rapidly away, pursuing the main road toward London; and _ having changed the horse twice at lonely wayside public- houses, it entered the metropolis just as the clocks were striking five in the morning. I was then blindfolded, doubtless to prevent me from even forming a conjecture as to the direction which was now taken; but I could judge by a few instructions which the leader of the party gave the driver from time to time, that the van was pur- posely pursuing a circuitous route. Finally, it was about six o’clock, as I have already informed you, when I was removed from the vehicle and thrust into this cell. Since (C(O) r 0) Oy 0) (C(O)