The Man in Black: An Historical Novel of the Days of Queen AnneJames, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
History
The Man in Black: An Historical Novel of the Days of Queen Anne
James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
Great Britain -- History -- Anne, 1702-1714 -- Fiction
Mrs. Hazleton made no answer to her dear friend's questions, and the
high constable, taking a little step forward, said, "I beg pardon,
Mrs. Warmington, for intruding into your house; but I have been
ordered to apprehend this lady, and to have her person and her
carriage strictly searched, without giving the opportunity for the
concealment or destruction of any thing. It seems to me that Mrs.
Hazleton has something bulky in that left hand pocket. As I do not
like to put my hand rudely upon a lady, may I ask you, Madam, to let
me see what that pocket contains?"
Without the slightest hesitation, but with a good deal of curiosity,
Mrs. Warmington advanced at once and took hold of the rich silk
brocade of the prisoner's gown.
"Out, woman!" cried Mrs. Hazleton, with the fire flashing from her
eyes; and she struck her.
But Mrs. Warmington did not quit her hold or her purpose. "Good
gracious, what a termagant!" she exclaimed, and at once thrust her
right hand into the pocket, and drew forth the vial which had been
sent by the surgeon to Lady Hastings.
"Dear me!" exclaimed Mrs. Warmington. "Why, this is the very bottle I
saw you mixing stuff in this morning, when you seemed so angry and
vexed at my coming into the still-room.--No, it isn't the same either;
but it was one very like this, only darker in the the color."
"Ha!" said Mr. Atkinson. "Madam, will you have the goodness to put a
mark upon that bottle by which you can know it again?--Scratch it with
a diamond or something."
"Oh, poor I have no diamonds," said Mrs. Warmington. "My dear, will
you lend me that ring?"
Mrs. Hazleton gave her a withering glance, but made no reply; and
Marlow pointed to two peculiar spots in the glass of the bottle,
saying, "By those marks it will be known, so that it cannot be
mistaken." His words were addressed to Mr. Atkinson; for he felt
disgusted and sickened by the heartless and insulting tone of Mrs.
Warmington towards her former friend.
At the sound of his voice--for she had not yet looked at him--Mrs.
Hazleton started and looked round. It is not possible to tell the
feelings which affected her heart at that moment, or to picture with
the pen the varied expressions, all terrible, which swept over her
beautiful countenance like a storm. She remembered how she had loved
him. Perhaps at that moment she knew for the first time how much she
had loved him. She felt too, how strongly love and hate had been
mingled together by the fiery alchemy of disappointment, as veins of
incongruous metals have been mixed by the great convulsions of the
early earth. She felt too, at that moment, that it was this love and
this hate which had been the cause of her deepest crimes, and all
their consequences--the awful situation in which she there stood, the
lingering tortures of imprisonment, the agonies of trial, and the
bitter consummation of the scaffold.
"Oh, Marlow, Marlow," she cried--in a tone for the first time
sorrowful--"to see you mingling in these acts!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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