William Harrison Ainsworth

Jack Sheppard Vol III (of III) William Harrison Ainsworth

Extract: CHAPTER XI. DOLLIS HILL REVISITED. About an hour after the occurrences at Newgate, the door of the small back-parlour already described at Dollis Hill was opened by Winifred, who, gliding noiselessly across the room, approached a couch, on which was extended a sleeping female, and, gazing anxiously at her pale careworn countenance, murmured, -"Heaven be praised! she still slumbers-slumbers peacefully. The opiate has done its duty. Poor thing! how beautiful she looks! but how like death!" Deathlike, indeed, was the repose of the sleeper, -deathlike and deep. Its very calmness was frightful. Her lips were apart, but no breath seemed to issue from them; and, but for a slight-very slight palpitation of the bosom, the vital principle might be supposed to be extinct. This lifeless appearance was heightened by the extreme sharpness of her features-especially the nose and chin, -and by the emaciation of her limbs, which was painfully distinct through her drapery. Her attenuated arms were crossed upon her breast; and her black brows and eyelashes contrasted fearfully with the livid whiteness of her skin. A few short, dark locks, escaping from beneath her head-dress, showed that her hair had been removed, and had only been recently allowed to grow again. "Poor Mrs. Sheppard!" sighed Winifred, as she contemplated the beautiful wreck before her, -"Poor Mrs. Sheppard! when I see her thus, and think of all she has endured, of all she may yet have to endure, I could almost pray for her release from trouble. I dare not reflect upon the effect that her son's fate, -if the efforts to save him are ineffectual, -may have upon her enfeebled frame, and still worse upon her mind. What a mercy that the blow aimed at her by the ruffian, Wild, though it brought her to the brink of the grave, should have restored her to reason! Ah! she stirs."