Produced by Clare Graham and Marc D'Hooghe; Images generously made available by the Internet Archive THE MUMMY! A TALE OF THE TWENTY-SECOND CENTURY. By Jane Webb (Mrs. Loudon). "Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?" I SAM., xxviii. 15. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1827. TABLE OF CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER I. CHAPTER XVII. CHAPTER II. CHAPTER XVIII. CHAPTER III. CHAPTER XIX. CHAPTER IV. CHAPTER XX. CHAPTER V. CHAPTER XXI. CHAPTER VI. CHAPTER XXII. CHAPTER VII. CHAPTER XXIII. CHAPTER VIII. CHAPTER XXIV. CHAPTER IX. CHAPTER XXV. CHAPTER X. CHAPTER XXVI. CHAPTER XI. CHAPTER XXVII. CHAPTER XII. CHAPTER XXVIII. CHAPTER XIII. CHAPTER XXIX. CHAPTER XIV. CHAPTER XXX. CHAPTER XV. CHAPTER XXXI. CHAPTER XVI. CHAPTER XXXII. [Transcriber's note: _The Mummy!_ was originally published in three volumes. The chapters have been renumbered in this edition, and the volume breaks indicated (ends of chapters XI and XXIV).] INTRODUCTION. I have long wished to write a novel, but I could not determine what it was to be about. I could not bear any thing common-place, and I did not know what to do for a hero. Heroes are generally so much alike, so monotonous, so dreadfully insipid--so completely brothers of one race, with the family likeness so amazingly strong--"This will not do for me," thought I as I sauntered listlessly down a shady lane, one fine evening in June; "I must have something new, something quite out of the beaten path:--but what?"--ay, that was the question. In vain did I rack my brains--in vain did I search the storehouse of my memory: I could think of nothing that had not been thought of before. "It is very strange!" said I, as I walked faster, as though I hoped the rapidity of my motion would shake off the sluggishness of my imagination. It was all in vain! I struck my forehead and called wit to my assistance, but the malignant deity was deaf to my entreaty. "Surely," thought I, "the deep mine of invention cannot be worked out; there must be some new ideas left, if I could but find them." To find them, however, was the difficulty.