The Child of Waterloo, or, The Horrors of the Battle-Field — page 34: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE CHILD OF WATERLOO. 81 whom he had called Marie, and who, to all appearance, lay dead by his side, Morton knew nothing further of than that such a form did lie there. Of her subsequent proceedings he was ignorant, although the reader has had some insight into them. Around the neck of Mabel he had found the cross which the audacious and brutal beggar in the wilderness bad alluded to, and which he had really described so readily and so truly; but beyond the letters at the back of it of M. R., it afforded no tangible clew. He had likewise heard the name of Rouselli; but so confused had been his own perceptions, in consequence of the anguish of bis wounds and the weakness incidental to them, that he could noes to whom it belonged, or in what manner it had been used. He took a journey to Paris, and made cautious inquiries, but could learn nothing satisfactory. The only shadow of intelli- gence he got was from an old soldier, who was in the Hotel d’Invalides, at Paris, and who told him that as he lay upon the field of Waterloo, badly wounded, a beautiful young female passed him, with an infant in her arms, uttering lamentations, and apparently looking for some one among the dead or the ying. This was all he could learn. There was no officer of the name of Rouselli who had been at Waterloo, he was assured, and fearful of awakening surmises unfavorable to the peace of Mabel, he gave up further inquiry, and returned to England with a determination never again to revert to the subject, but to inform Mabel, when she should come of an age to understand the nature of the intelligence, of the means by which she had come into his possession and under his protection. . CHAPTER VIII. As may naturally be presumed, both Mr. and Mrs. Morton were extremely anxious to know the prime cause of the alarm which had ended in Mabel fainting. They knew that she was not of a timid disposition, because they had taken care, in the course of the very excellent education they had given her, that she should not be made so. They knew that she was not one who gave way readily to alarm, or who would feel at all inclined to make ‘‘a scene” about nothing. From Charles they hoped, after Mabel had been duly con- veyed to ber own room and left in charge of old Deb, than whom no one was more capable of taking charge, to hear, at all events, an accurate description of the man who had terrified her; but, as we are aware, Charles had left the house with Raf- ferty, and, to tel! the truth, Henry Morton did not feel ver much displeased to hear that he had done so, for, notwithstand- ing he had given in to Mabel’s feelings, and taken no energetic leg to have the daring and audacious beggar apprehended, yet in his heart he would have had no objection to have him lodged in the cage by Rafferty and Charles, comicbooks. com