The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 104: what you’re looking at

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

| | 99 THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. was steeled against all pity and all remorse, they _ spoke in hushed voices and with a cold shuddering. “Now I’m ready,” observed the knife-grinder, having drained the glass which Jack Ketch pre- sented to him: and, grasping the club, he fixed his hat with an air of resolution upon his head, and was preparing to leave the room when a sudden thought struck him. “You must lend me the light,” he said, taking up the only one that was left burning on the table. “ No—don’t leave us in the dark,” cried one of the women, a ghastly pallor instantaneously super- seding the flush of drinking. « Coward—fool!” hissed from the lips of Nell Gibson, as her eyes glared like those of a tiger-cat upon the young woman: then turning towards the knife-grinder, she said, *There’s no necessity to take this candle, because I left one burning in the lady's room.” “Very good,” observed Tibby Blades. “ Now don’t moye or make a noise till [ come back. I shan’t be mapy minutes absent,’ he added with a look of ominous significancy. He then quitted the room, closing the door behind him. Gently he crept along the short passage: but though he walled as if treading upon ice too thin to bear him, the erazy boards creaked beneath his feet. He groped for the latch of the door opening into the front chamber: he found it—raised it cau- tiously—and entered the room. The candle was still burning upon a little round table in the middle —and the young lady was lying stretched in pro- found slumber upon tie bed. But the knife-grinder did not waste a moment in contemplating her. He closed the door—and put a chair slanting-wise against it so as to secure it from being opened unless by great force: for there was no lock or fastening of any kind saye the mere latch. He then g¢antiously raised the window and examined the shutter. A single bolt held it; and it opened like a door on the outside of the casement. Leaving the shutter still closed, but the window open, Tibby Blades approached the bed and shook the young lady by the shoulder, She opened her eyes; and starting up, was about to give vent to a scream. But the knife-grinder instantaneously said, “For God’s sake, be still!” in so hurried yet deep and impressive a manner, that the sound died upon her lips—and her terror showed itself in a wild gaze. “Young lady, I am your friend—don’t mind my appearance—for I’m only a poor tinker,” were the hasty words which he now whispered in her ears. “You are in a dreadful place—and you must get up and escape without a moment's delay.” The young lady sate up on the bed and still gazed wildly upon the knife grinder, as if a terrible consternation were upon her. “Here—take your jewels—put on your things-— and be off—for God’s sake be off!” said the man, in so earnest and imploring a tone that the young creature was instantaneously awakened as it were to a sense of some frightful peril and to the neces- sity of energetic action. Trembling, however, from head to foot, and with chattering teeth, she huddled on her clothes and thrust her purse and jewels into her pocket. The knife-grinder opened the shutter as gently as he ~ could, and helped her out into the street. But at that instant the rush of footsteps in the passage fell on his ears—and at the moment he was pre- paring to follow her through the window, the chamber-door was broken in. He sprang after her into the street: but he stumbled—fell heavily with his head against a stone—and was stunned. In another instant the Hangman, who bounded after him through the window, was kneeling upon him, keeping him down—while Nell Gibson and some others of the gang opened the front-door and rushed in pursuit of the young lady. Away she sped along the street, terror giving wings to her feet, but paralysing her tongue. She heard the pursuers—and yet she could not ery ont for assistance. Fortunately for her, a number of men belonging to one of the wharves on Bermond- sey Walk were just going to their work at an hour unusually early, on account of some lighter that was to be loaded for the next tide:—and the young lady, perceiving by the glimmering of dawn which was now breaking, that they were honest- looking fellows, at onee appealed to them for pro- tection. Nell Gibson and her accomplices, observing the turn which the adventure had thus taken, hurried back to the dark crib, into which the Hangman and Bencull had in the meantime borne the still sense- less knife-grinder. The shutter was speedily closed again—the street-door secured—and thus, in a few minutes, the dreadful house once more pres@nted a tranquil though gloomy and sombre exterior to the view. In a hurried and incoherent manner, the young lady told the wharfingers how she had been enticed to some bad place close by—how she had been warned of danger and assisted to escape by some friendly-disposed person—and how this person in endeayouring to follow her, had fallen and been secured by the inmates of the dwelling. The working-men, compassionating the aftlicted young creature, offered to escort her to a safer neigh- bourhood: but they were too much accustomed to hear of broils and disturbances in Jacob’s Island to think it worth their while to mix themselves up any farther in the matter. Two of them accord- ingly set off to conduct her away from that vicinage —and the others proceeded to their work. But in the meantime what had happened inside the dark erib? The knife-grinder, still stunned and senseless from the effects of his fall, had been borne into the dwelling and carried to that back room where the night’s orgie had taken place. The villains laid him upon the floor, and in hurried manner delibe- rated upon the course that they should pursue. That he was either a traitor or a coward they felt convinced ; and in either case there was every rea- son to apprehend that he would betray them. He had heard enough of their proceedings and their plans, even setting aside their intention to murder the young lady, to consign them all to prison and send them out as transports from the country ;— and so desperate a set of miscreants were not likely to hesitate long how to dispose of so danger- ous an individual. They therefore resolved to make aiay with him; and as he was already in a state of insensibility, this course could be carried out with but little violence and no noise. All present being agreed upon the point, the ne ee - Sa ee OC = eC CS CC —-- CONMICLIOONXS (E()