The Young Duchess; or, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality — page 273: what you’re looking at

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

a rrr my A I i A, ES TT A i eer ein ee ha TO DS en ee ee ee Aleem — ‘ THE YOUNG DUCHESS; OR, MEMOIRS OF A LADY OF QUALITY. ‘‘ ‘What earthly grievance can he have against King Louis Philippe ?” asked the Ambassador. Mandeville shrugged his shoulders, and said, ‘‘ There are opinionated, selfish, and desperate men amongst the English as well as amongst other nations. Whether this person be sincere in his revolutionary sentiments or not, I cannot tell: but that he has abandoned himself to the wildest and insanest hopes in that respect, there can be no doubt. He has been taught to believe that the establishment of a Republic must follow at once upon the assassination of the King, and that all who have any hand in bringing about the catastrophe, will be rewarded with riches and lucrative situations. But I need not tell your Excellency how men of this class first delude 259 asked the Ambassador gravely and solemnly, “ of the truth of this fact ?” ‘‘T am assured of it. And indeed it appears to be the only way to account for the vindictive hate of the Duchess towards King Louis Philippe, and the lavish manner in which she supplies the conspirators, through her English friend or para- mour—or whatever he may be—with funds for the carrying out of their iniquitous design.” ‘Ah! then,” said the Ambassador, ‘ the funds come from her purse? Do you know who this duchess is ?” ‘I do,” replied Mandeville. “But pray do not ask me to name her ; for in the proceedings which I am about to suggest as the means of defeating this odious conspiracy, there is one point on which themselves, and then succeed in deluding each | T must insist on a special stipulation; and this is other. However, so it is; and of all the con- spirators the Englishman is the most dan- gerous.” ““ How so?” inquired the Ambassador. ‘* Because he is the only one who can com- mand pecuniary resources. The others are pen- niless—and therefore, without him, powerless: for a conspiracy of this kind needs money.” “Who, then, is the English conspirator c asked the Ambassador. ““T do not know his real name, nor where he lives, nor anything concerning his true social position. These particulars he himself has kept in the background. But he is heart and soul in the evil cause which he has adopted; and I repeat, it is he who holds the purse. But there is even something more.’ ‘“* And what is that 2” asked the Ambassador. ‘‘This Englishman is in some way connected with a lady of the highest patrician rank—indeed nothing less than a Duchess; and she by some strange infatuation has been led to countenance the plot in which the man himself is engaged.” ‘What !” exclaimed the Ambassador; ‘an English duchess lend herself to the schemes of assassins? Impossible,€ount! You are carrying the romance too far!” “Y shall be enabled to convince your Excellency that it is aaything but aromance. There shall be proof for every detail which I am now giving you.” “Good heavens !” cried the Ambassador, “ an English duchess the patroness of regicides !” “It is even so. But perhaps there may be— and no doubt there is—a personal pique in the matter.” ‘In what form?” asked the Ambassador. ‘Come, speak out——I see that you know.” ‘““Some few years ago,” resumed Mandeville, ‘‘the Duchess visited Paris. I know not all the circumstances of the case—I am therefore only able to give your Excellency a mere scanty out- line: but certain it is that this duchess was shamefully outraged—I believe even violated— by one of King Louis Philippe’s sons; and when she appealed to the King himself for redress, his Majesty treated the matter with levity, declaring that those sort of things were nothing in France, and that if she were a wise woman and held her tongue she could sustain no injury. So for her own sake she hushed it up: -but she has ever since cherished a bitter burning hatred against King Louis Philippe and all his family.” “Are you quite assured, Count Mandeville,” ee ee re tet He Ge a erat ET EE SONS doing business. that all which concerns the Duchess be carefully and religiously concealed.” “Tf by the destruction of the conspiracy,” re- plied the Ambassador, ‘‘she herself be rendered powerless in respect to future machinations of the same diabolical sort, I have not the slightest objection to accede to the point for which you stipulate.” ‘‘ Rest assured, your Excellency, that by the failure of the present conspiracy she will be sufficiently sickened of the whole affair, and will wash her hands of such proceedings for the future. At all events I promise that in case of necessity— of absolute necessity, mind—I will put you in possession of her name, and thus paralyse her altogether. I must remain silent on that point ” “ Agréed ! !” said the Ambassador. rators to be baffled ?” ‘‘ As a matter of course,” said Mandeville, “the | whole affair is to be crushed silently and without | noise.” “No doubt of it,” answered the Ambassador. “Tn the first place "Louis Philippe would not for | the world have it known that such plots are hatched against him; and secondly it were vain to appeal to the English law, because without your evidence we could prove nothing—and as a matter of course you would not stand forward to | give your testimony.” ““Assuredly not,” rejoined Mandeville. “I neither wish to obtain the reputation of a spy, nor to stand the chance of being assasinated by - one of the desperadoes whom I should be betray- ing. But all my plans are settled in my mind, and the mode of action is easy.” ‘‘Proceed,” said the Ambassador, drawing his chair-closer to Mandeville. “You have.a steam-vessel,” said the latter, “lying off Woolwich ?” The Ambassador answered in the affirmative. “ Now, as your Excellency may easily suppose,” resumed Mandeville, “‘ I have not been in the secret service of the Russians without gaining certain experiences and noting in my mind what- soever is worth borrowing from their system of They have one very useful and convenient proceeding which they are wont to adopt in extreme cases. In short, it is nothing less than carrying off an obnoxious individual, neck and crop, despite the mawkish consideration of violating the laws of the particular territory where the thing may occur; and COMO But until such necessity should arise “And now . for your projects, Count? How are the conspi- : YN Wn) Colin