Definition of "helplessly"

The whole covey of victims was thus netted; the household ruin was thus full and orbicular; and in that proportion the tendency of men and women, flutter as they might, would be helplessly and hopelessly to sink into the all-conquering hands of the mighty murderer.

1854, “On Murder, Considered as One of the Fine Arts. Postscript.”, in Miscellanies (De Quincey’s Works; IV), London: James Hogg & Sons, page 76