Skilligalee's lips were compressed; and he evidently experienced immense difficulty in restraining his feelings.
Margaret was deposited on a mattress in the inner cell: a loaf of bread and pitcher of water had already been placed upon a shelf in one corner of the dungeon.
The door was then closed and carefully bolted.
The door of the outer cellar was also shut; and thus was the wretched woman entombed alive.
But as the procession of Zingarees turned to leave the vicinity of that fearful scene of punishment, a faint shriek—though not the less expressive of bitter agony in consequence of its indistinctness—fell upon the ears of those who had witnessed the sepulture of a living being.
EPILOGUE TO VOLUME I.
THUS far have we pursued our adventurous theme; and though we have already told so much, how much more does there remain yet to tell!
Said we not, at the outset, that we would introduce our readers to a city of strange contrasts? and who shall say that we have not fulfilled our promise?
But as yet we have only drawn the veil partially aside from the mighty panorama of grandeur and misery which it is our task to display:—the reader has still to be initiated more deeply into the Mysteries of London.
We have a grand moral to work out—a great lesson to teach every class of society;—a moral and a lesson whose themes are