The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 135: what you’re looking at

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

108 THE COURT OF LONDON that moment I have been enabled to calculate the lapse of time by the regularity with which the wretches bring me my sorry meals. But solitude, darkness, the terrific nature of my thoughts, a poignant sense of the tremendous injuries I have sustained at the hands of those whom I never in- jured, and the incessant contemplation of the wrongs that have been heaped upon me by persons whom I never wronged, — all this would have driven me mad — mad — had not your presence here this night given me a com- panion to whose ears I could unburden my pent-up, suf- focating misery! Oh! the malignant fiends — what do they require of me? That I should sign some paper with the contents of which I am not to be made acquainted, and that I shall consent to expatriate myself for ever to the American Continent, where a handsome pecuniary allowance will be made me. These are the terms on which my freedom can be obtained, these are the conditions which are proposed to me every time my meals are brought. Vainly have I questioned the man who is thus appointed to attend upon me, — vainly have I questioned him, I say, upon many points which so nearly regard me. He is speech- less save in respect to a constant reiteration of those terms to which I cannot accede. But now, alas! from your lips I learn that my fame is blackened, that my reputation is assailed by the seducer of my poor wife and his equally vile partner in iniquity. Oh, to escape — to escape from this dungeon, and invoke the justice of the tribunals to decide between them and me!” “ And it will be no difficult matter to prove your inno- cence,” said Page; ‘“‘ for the forgeries at the Bank of Eng- land can doubtless be traced to Mr. Martin, the cashier at your late establishment in Aylesbury can give sufficient testimony to clear you of any complicity in the misappro- priation of the funds, and the fact of your incarceration here will show how urgent were the reasons that have in- duced your partners thus to dispose of you. The only points — and they are, after all, the most serious —”’ ‘‘Speak, my friend—speak candidly,’ exclaimed the baronet, perceiving that the commercial traveller hesitated. ‘“T was alluding, Sir Richard, to the — the — death of Lady Stamford and the burning of the manor,” continued Page. ‘ But I might as well inform you of a fact which COMMICLMOOOKSa