The Mysteries of London; or, Lights and Shadows of London Life — page 359: what you’re looking at

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

- -™ Bias wel 7 a i 7 = _ 7 mg »’ ee ‘ - — —~ ESC OO ee OO NO, ees LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF LONDON LIFE. 357 ceunted to his horror-stricken companion ‘the tale of his shame and misery. The brothers-in-law both planted themselves near the door of Faddle’s lodgings. Fer more than an hour they stood sentry upon their posts. At last they heard the sound of feet in the passage, and the husband's heart was agonised by the echo of a kiss. An instant longer and he would have gone mad. The door was opened at last, and the guilty Lady Wilten stood face to face with the man she had se cruelly injured and dishoneured—with the father of her children, and her incensed brother. The latter, darting through the half-closed door, proceeded to inflict chastisement upon the seducer—so severe, that but for the interference of the police, who were attracted to the spot by his cries, his career of infamy and vice in this world would have been over. Lady Wilton had fainted. When she recovered she found herself in a chaise, with her brother driving towards Essex, to the family seat, the home of her youth and innocence, but which she had dishonoured. As she gazed upon the sad stern countenance of her compa- nion, the sense of her degradation fell bitterly upon her heart. It was but a few hours before he had en- countered her at a brilliant party, in that circle from which she felt she wasnow banished for ever, and greeted her with a brother’s kiss of pride and love, As the carriage rolled on, the thought of her ehildren whom she so tenderly loved, the husband she had dis- honoured, presanted themselves. Falling at her bro- ther’s feet, she sobbed bitterly : “Take me back! For pity’s sake, take me back!” “ Where?” coldly demanded the colonel. “To my lord and children.” “The adulteress,” he sternly replied, ‘‘ has neither husband nor children. A few days will deprive her even of her name. You should have thought of them before.” “Bat to ask their forgiveness, and die!’’ “You must die without either seeing or obtaining their pardon,” he replied. “ Yours is acrime which { Heaven may forgive, but man never, Lydia,” he added, bitterly, “how have you fallen! You have descended from a sphere of which you were the orna- ment—degraded yourself with a cur, a coward, a wretch without honour or courage—a knave, who has plundered, as well as degraded you—a felon in heart, if not in fact.’ Heedless of her prayers, tears, and frantic suppli- cations, the firm soldier proceeded with his charge till they reached the family mansion, frem which she had parted an honoured bride, if not a happy one, “And now, to contemplate the change was more than her reason could support. The following morning found her a raving maniac, calling upon the children she had abandoned, the husband she had dishonoured. After placing her under the charge of servants, upon whose fidelity and kindaess he knew he could rely, her brother returned to London to his disconsolate friend, Lord Wilton. The affair, from being whispered, soon became openly talked about, and in a few days were commenced in the Ecclesiastical Court for a divorce. It was some days before Faddle had recovered suf- ficiently frem the thrashing he had received to leave town, which he did to avoid the ridicule the disgrace had brought upen him. He had vuinoly tried, amongst all his acquaintances, to find one who would de- grade himself by being the bearer of a challenge to his punisher. Many laughed at the request, others damned his impertinence, and one, more sarcastic than tha wact adviaead him to sand it hv hig eoroom. Aaa last resource, he called upon Wilmott, whom he had not seen for some days, thinking that he dared not refuse him. To his surprise, he found the bird had flown—he and his wife had started for the continent. At first he knew not whether to rejoice or regret his { escape from his influence; the former feeling ulti- mately prevailed, for he dreaded that he would become a dependant upon his bounty; but he had rather - have heard that he was dead—much rather. In order to provide for his journey, he paid a visit to the brokers, Messrs. Bilk and Company; and, without observing the cool indifference with which he was received by the head of the firm, demanded three hundred pounds. “From what assets?’’ said the man of , business, with a grin. “Frem the sum of eighteen thousand pounds, de- posited in your hands,” replied Faddle, with a smile, deeming that the man of business was bandying jests with him. Mr. Bilk, with the same unmoved expression of countenance, opened his desk, and, instead of the sum he asked, handed a paper to him. It was an in- junctien from the Court of Chancery, laying a dis- ; tringus upon any money or moneys he might have in his hands pertaining to Frank Faddle, commonly known by the name of Captain Faddle; the said moneys having been obtained by fraud and misrepre- sentation from Lady Wilton, without any value being given; the said Lady Wilten not being at the time competent to manage her own affairs, but labouring under certain deiusions respecting him, The villain was thunderstruck ; the harvest he had gleaned from her weakness by the vilest arts, was in an instant torn from him by a power against which all his cunniag and tact were useless. Like a mad- man he rushed from the counting -khouse, breathing curses too fearful for repetition. He was once more a ruined man, overwhelmed with debts—a dishonoured beggar. What to do he knew not, Life was to be commenced again, with a blasted character and sullied name. His dupes were partially avenged. “ Curse them!” he muttered, as soon as he reached the open air; “they have struck me down at last. Fool that I was to trust the spoil to any hand! I ought to have known that they would use every means to crush me. I have lost the game with the trump cards in my hand.” On his return home he found, to add to his em- barrassments, a notice of civil action from the earl to recover damages for an adulterous intercourse with his wife. Turn which way he would, ruin was before him. “ Rouse, Frank !”’ he muttered ; “this is the moment for action, not regret; I shall have time for that hereafter.” Hastily looking over his jewellery and pocket-book, he found that by the sale of the former, and the ¢on- tents of the latter, he might perhaps be enabled to reach the continent with three hundred pounds, His arrangements were quickly made, his passport pro- cured, and all prepared to atart the following morning for France, there to commence a new life of adventure and crime. To prevent suspicion as to his intentions, he resolved to appear, for the last time, at the opera. He felt a ferocious joy in making himself the observed of ob- servers in braving public opinion, and about nine eo made his appearance in his stall | on him. Those who were seatst 1 Gh xn) intrigue. the turf. and fashion—turned oer tte with