3-052-326 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Like a galvanised corpse, she raised herself suddenly, and seizing the candle...", 1872. Illustration to a short story by F. C. Burnand: 'The Barrow of Bordeaux; Or, A Life's Mystery. Prologue. (Extract from a letter written by the person known as Charles Denmont to his friend X-------.)...Once again I stood by the bedside. The miserable crone, exhausted by her efforts, was fast sinking. I leant over her and said, distinctly, in her ear, "The secret - now." I fell back horrified, as, like a galvanised corpse, she raised herself suddenly on her elbow, and, seizing the candle in her right hand, held it high above her head. Her eyes glared like those of a wild beast, and her whole body trembled with the fearful frenzy of what I knew now must be her last agony. "So...kneel, man - kneel!" Unhesitatingly I knelt. A terrific blast shook the rafters, and I heard a crash above me...She heeded it not. "Now." she cried. "You who would know why Gaspar...why Martin...both dead, oh, Heaven! both dead!...why they led you on to your doom...listen!" I bent my head forward eagerly to catch every word. She continued, "They but told you the name...ha! ha!...You have now to learn - and from me, from me - Heaven forgive me! from me, that the Barrow...".' From "Illustrated London News", 1880.