The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 311: what you’re looking at

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

' THE DEATH-BED | 281 sincerely I forgive all and any injuries which you have endeavoured to inflict upon me,” exclaimed Florimel. ‘ But can you, Caroline, as readily and as unfeignedly pardon me for the first tremendous wrong which I perpetrated against ou? ” “Yes, I forgive you, unfeignedly forgive you, Gabriel,” replied Caroline, her looks confirming her words. “Then may Heaven forgive you also the misdeeds which weigh upon your soul,” exclaimed Florimel, with a sacred fervour and a pious solemnity such as he had never before expressed or felt, but which were not the less sincere on that account; and having pressed the dying girl’s hand to his lips for a moment, he rose from his knees and sat down on a chair by the side of the bed. ~T despair not of the forgiveness of Heaven, Gabriel, “ said Caroline, in a firmer tone and with a temporary flush of conscious innocence upon her cheeks; “ for I have naught to answer for save that frailty into which my love for you betrayed me, and that thirst after revenge which your infidelity engendered in my soul.” “ How? What mean you, Caroline? ” exclaimed Florimel, regarding her with mingled joy and astonishment. ‘ The crime of which you are accused, which has made you an inmate of this dreadful place — Ohl how happy should I be to learn that you are innocent — ‘‘T am innocent, Gabriel,’ said the young woman, in a tone and manner that were imbued with all the deep feeling and profound solemnity of unquestionable truth. ‘“ Yes, I am innocent, and my guiltlessness will be shortly made clear to the world. Oh! if God would only spare me until that end shall have been achieved, I should die resignedly — nay, happily — “‘ But the real perpetrator of the deed? The murderer of the midwife? ” exclaimed Florimel, interrogatively, and still under the influence of an immense surprise, although he doubted not for a moment the truth of all that the dying girl was telling him. “The Honourable Arthur Eaton, who is likewise the vic- tim of circumstantial evidence, knows everything,” returned Caroline, ‘‘ and he will make his own innocence and mine apparent at the same time. Let us not therefore dwell upon the subject; suffice it for you to be convinced that I am CONMUC 6)(0V6) cS (E()