CHAPTER I.--The Old House in Smithfield 2

II.--The Mysteries of the Old House 4 III.--The Trap-Door 6 IV.--The Two Trees 7 V.--Eligible Acquaintances 11 VI.--Mrs. Arlington 14 VII.--The Boudoir 16 VIII.--The Conversation 19 IX.--A City Man.--Smithfield Scenes 20 X.--The Frail One's Narrative 24 XI.--"The Servants' Arms" 27 XII.--The Bank Notes 30 XIII.--The Hell 32 XIV.--The Station-House 35 XV.--The Police-Office 37 XVI.--The Beginning of Misfortunes 39 XVII.--A Den of Horrors 43 XVIII.--The Boozing-Ken 45 XIX.--Morning 50 XX.--The Villa 51 XXI.--Atrocity 54 XXII.--A Woman's Mind 55 XXIII.--The Old House in Smithfield again 58 XXIV.--Circumstantial Evidence 61 XXV.--The Enchantress 63 XXVI.--Newgate 67 XXVII.--The Republican and the Resurrection Man 69 XXVIII.--The Dungeon 71 XXIX.--The Black Chamber 75 XXX.--The 26th of November 78 XXXI.--Explanations 84 XXXII.--The Old Bailey 86 XXXIII.--Another Day at the Old Bailey 91 XXXIV.--The Lesson interrupted 93 XXXV.--Whitecross Street Prison 95 XXXVI.--The Execution 99 XXXVII.--The Lapse of Two Years 102 XXXVIII.--The Visit 105 XXXIX.--The Dream 109 XL.--The Speculation--An unwelcome Meeting 111 XLI.--Mr. Greenwood 115 XLII.--"The Dark House" 118 XLIII.--The Mummy 122 XLIV.--The Body-Snatchers 125 XLV.--The Fruitless Search 128 XLVI.--Richard and Isabella 131 XLVII.--Eliza Sydney 138 XLVIII.--Mr. Greenwood's Visitors 140 XLIX.--The Document 148 L.--The Drugged Wine-glass 151 LI.--Diana and Eliza 154 LII.--The Bed of Sickness 156 LIII.--Accusations and Explanations 158 LIV.--The Banker 162 LV.--Miserrima!! 167 LVI.--The Road to Ruin 171 LVII.--The Last Resource 176 LVIII.--New Year's Day 178 LIX.--The Royal Lovers 182 LX.--Revelations 185 LXI.--The "Boozing-Ken" once more 188 LXII.--The Resurrection Man's History 191 LXIII.--The Plot 197 LXIV.--The Counterplot 198 LXV.--The Wrongs and Crimes of the Poor 202 LXVI.--The Result of Markham's Enterprise 205 LXVII.--Scenes in Fashionable Life 207 LXVIII.--The Election 210 LXIX.--The "Whippers-in" 213 LXX.--The Image, the Picture, and the Statue 216 LXXI.--The House of Commons 219 LXXII.--The Black Chamber again 221 LXXIII.--Captain Dapper and Sir Cherry Bounce 224 LXXIV.--The Meeting 227 LXXV.--The Crisis 230 LXXVI.--Count Alteroni's Fifteen Thousand Pounds 233 LXXVII.--A Woman's Secret 235 LXXVIII.--Marian 237 LXXIX.--The Bill.--A Father 239 LXXX.--The Revelation 242 LXXXI.--The Mysterious Instructions 245 LXXXII.--The Medical Man 246 LXXXIII.--The Black Chamber again 248 LXXXIV.--The Second Examination.--Count Alteroni 250 LXXXV.--A Friend in Need 254 LXXXVI.--The Old Hag 256 LXXXVII.--The Professor of Mesmerism 260 LXXXVIII.--The Figurante 262 LXXXIX.--The Mysterious Letter 266 XC.--Markham's Occupations 268 XCI.--The Tragedy 274 XCII.--The Italian Valet 277 XCIII.--News from Castelcicala 282 XCIV.--The Home Office 285 XCV.--The Forger and the Adulteress 290 XCVI.--The Member of Parliament's Levee 293 XCVII.--Another's New Year's Day 296 XCVIII.--Dark Plots and Schemes 301 XCIX.--The Buffer's History 304 C.--The Mysteries of the Ground-floor Rooms 310 CI.--The Widow 312 CII.--The Reverend Visitor 314 CIII.--Hopes and Fears 317 CIV.--Female Courage 318 CV.--The Combat 321 CVI.--The Grave-digger 323 CVII.--A Discovery 326 CVIII.--The Exhumation 328 CIX.--The Stock-Broker 331 CX.--The Effects of a Trance 339 CXI.--A Scene at Mr. Chichester's House 340 CXII.--Viola 342 CXIII.--The Lovers 346 CXIV.--The Contents of the Packet 349 CXV.--The Treasure.--A New Idea 351 CXVI.--The Rattlesnake's History 353 CXVII.--The Rattlesnake 361 CXVIII.--The Two Maidens 364 CXIX.--Poor Ellen! 367 CXX.--The Father and Daughter 369 CXXI.--His Child! 371 CXXII.--A Change of Fortune 373 CXXIII.--Aristocratic Morals 375 CXXIV.--The Intrigues of a Demirep 377 CXXV.--The Reconciliation 380 CXXVI.--The Rector of Saint David's 382 CXXVII.--Blandishments 384 CXXVIII.--Temptation 387 CXXIX.--The Fall 389 CXXX.--Mental Struggles 391 CXXXI.--The Statue 394 CXXXII.--An Old Friend 396 CXXXIII.--Skilligalee's History 400 CXXXIV.--The Palace in the Holy Land 406 CXXXV.--The Proposal.--Unexpected Meetings 408 CXXXVI.--The Secret Tribunal 413 EPILOGUE 415

ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL I.

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THE MYSTERIES OF LONDON.

PROLOGUE.

Between the 10th and 13th centuries Civilisation withdrew from Egypt and Syria, rested for a little space at Constantinople, and then passed away to the western climes of Europe.

From that period these climes have been the grand laboratory in which Civilisation has wrought out refinement in every art and every science, and whence it has diffused its benefits over the earth. It has taught commerce to plough the waves of every sea with the adventurous keel; it has enabled handfuls of disciplined warriors to subdue the mighty armaments of oriental princes; and its daring sons have planted its banners amidst the eternal ice of the poles. It has cut down the primitive forests of America; carried trade into the interior of Africa; annihilated time and distance by the aid of steam; and now contemplates how to force a passage through Suez and Panama.

The bounties of Civilisation are at present almost everywhere recognised.

Nevertheless, for centuries has Civilisation established, and for centuries will it maintain, its headquarters in the great cities of Western Europe: and with Civilisation does Vice go hand-in-hand.

Amongst these cities there is one in which contrasts of a strange nature exist. The most unbounded wealth is the neighbour of the most hideous poverty; the most gorgeous pomp is placed in strong relief by the most deplorable squalor; the most seducing luxury is only separated by a narrow wall from the most appalling misery.

The crumbs which fall from the tables of the rich would appear delicious viands to starving millions; and yet those millions obtain them not!

In that city there are in all districts five prominent buildings: the church, in which the pious pray; the gin-palace, to which the wretched poor resort to drown their sorrows; the pawnbroker's, where miserable creatures pledge their raiment, and their children's raiment, even unto the last rag, to obtain the means of purchasing food, and--alas! too often--intoxicating drink; the prison, where the victims of a vitiated condition of society expiate the crimes to which they have been driven by starvation and despair; and the workhouse, to which the destitute, the aged, and the friendless hasten to lay down their aching heads--and die!

And, congregated together in one district of this city, in an assemblage of palaces, whence emanate by night the delicious sounds of music; within whose walls the foot treads upon rich carpets; whose sideboards are covered with plate; whose cellars contain the choicest nectar of the temperate and torrid zones; and whose inmates recline beneath velvet canopies, feast at each meal upon the collated produce of four worlds, and scarcely have to breathe a wish before they find it gratified.

Alas! how appalling are these contrasts!

And, as if to hide its infamy from the face of heaven, this city wears upon its brow an everlasting cloud, which even the fresh fan of the morning fails to disperse for a single hour each day!

And in one delicious spot of that mighty city--whose thousand towers point upwards, from horizon to horizon, as an index of its boundless magnitude--stands the dwelling of one before whom all knees bow, and towards whose royal footstool none dares approach save with downcast eyes and subdued voice. The entire world showers its bounties upon the head of that favoured mortal; a nation of millions does homage to the throne whereon that being is exalted. The dominion of this personage so supremely blest extends over an empire on which the sun never sets--an empire greater than Jenghiz Khan achieved or Mohammed conquered.

This is the parent of a mighty nation; and yet around that parent's seat the children crave for bread!

Women press their little ones to their dried-up breasts in the agonies of despair; young delicate creatures waste their energies in toil from the dawn of day till long past the hour of midnight, perpetuating their unavailing labour from the hour of the brilliant sun to that when the dim candle sheds its light around the attic's naked walls; and even the very pavement groans beneath the weight of grief which the poor are doomed to drag over the rough places of this city of sad contrasts.

For in this city the daughter of the peer is nursed in enjoyments, and passes through an uninterrupted avenue of felicity from the cradle to the tomb; while the daughter of poverty opens her eyes at her birth upon destitution in all its most appalling shapes, and at length sells her virtue for a loaf of bread.

There are but two words known in the moral alphabet of this great city; for all virtues are summed up in the one, and all vices in the other: and those words are

WEALTH. | POVERTY.

Crime is abundant in this city: the lazar-house, the prison, the brothel, and the dark alley, are rife with all kinds of enormity; in the same way as the palace, the mansion, the clubhouse, the parliament, and the parsonage, are each and all characterised by their different degrees and shades of vice. But wherefore specify crime and vice by their real names, since in this city of which we speak they are absorbed in the multi-significant words--WEALTH and POVERTY?

Crimes borrow their comparative shade of enormity from the people who perpetrate them: thus is it that the wealthy may commit all social offences with impunity; while the poor are cast into dungeons and coerced with chains, for only following at a humble distance in the pathway of their lordly precedents.

From this city of strange contrasts branch off two roads, leading to two points totally distinct the one from the other.

One winds its tortuous way through all the noisome dens, of crime, chicanery, dissipation, and voluptuousness: the other meanders amidst rugged rocks and wearisome acclivities, it is true, but on the wayside are the resting-places of rectitude and virtue.

Along those roads two youths are journeying.

They have started from the same point; but one pursues the former path, and the other the latter.

Both come from the city of fearful contrasts; and both follow the wheels of fortune in different directions.

Where is that city of fearful contrasts?

Who are those youths that have thus entered upon paths so opposite the one to the other?

And to what destinies do those separate roads conduct them?