Explore "Jack Sheppard, Volume 3" by William H. Ainsworth on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
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.