The Mysteries of the Court of London Vol. 4 — page 156: what you’re looking at

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

be eippmGnts tint wth ee EP, eles Vin ATER. ho ee ee pousihle up to the two doctors, he ,faid, with vor- responding urbanity df tone, “Gentlemen, which of you would like to exchange a shut ortwo on the present fry suitable occasion Ys “Permit me, may good sir,"seaid Dr. Copperas, looking very hard’ at the Captain: and without any farther ceremony he began feeling the valiant officer's pulse—a proceeding which so astonished our friend ‘Tash, that he stood transfixed for upwards of a minute, gazing in speechless ap- trnishment upon the learned thembem of the faculty. “Well?” said Dr. Thurston, ingulringly, as He watched the proceedings of his colleague. “ Quick and feverish pulse,” said Dr. Copperas: then looking with ominous intentness into the Captuin’s face, he said, “Go home, sir--get your hair cut close—put a blister behind your ears-— avoid all aleoholic drink—keep yotraelf very quict indeed—and don’t. eat too mtich meat—nor let that be under-done, for you are assuredly of a sanguineous temperament, and 1 may indeed say, of sanguinary disposition.” Captain Tash was so astounded at ‘this long and not altogether intelligible harangue, that he atvod rooted to the spot for nearly a minute: then turning suddenly upon his heel, he muttered to himself, “These fellows understand nothing buat boluses and black draughts, and know no more of the laws of honour than I do of the Chinese lan- guage.” * But here we may clos¢ our deacription of -this mock duel—pausing only to observe that the two parties, returned to town in their respective vehicles, neither the seconds nor the physicians having enteyained the slightest suapicion that a conjuror’s trick®had suggested the idea for the bullets which were used upon the occasiop. And now, as Captain Tash had predicted, Horace Sackville indeed became the lion of the day. His name was in everybody's mouth: that ia to say, in all the fashionable quarters of the metropolis. Envied and eourted as he had been before, his popularity among a certain class increased a thou- sandfuld. Qh that naughty Sackville! -—that dear delightful wicked® Horace—that dangerous duck of a man!’—and other expressions of a similar character were heard in all the drawlpg- rooms at the West End That Venetia should ke no possible notice of the mattes, but appear “as if she were not even acquainted with her hus- band’s “ naughty doings” at all, was quite consis- tent with the aristocratic and fashibuabie ides in such matters. But thera wus vot a titled démi-~ rep, hor ‘a patrician courtezen who did riot affect to sptak with the most contemptuous pity of the disgraced aud lost Countess of Curzon: so that while Horave the sedueer was evarywhere cares eu) aud flattered, Ediths the seduced was every whore spoken of with an ironies! cowmiseration. ¢ “Poor creature!” said the deniireps ecan~ dal-mongers, “ahe Js Gone fot now. Botdis jast what was to o | expected, considering the family nhe }gnaiden thas found - ‘{meparaté from her lower: | Was not without @¢ < 9 Qe -s e e = ooeee ee eeeeeeee! e 6ee. 2 ee 9 THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. ; 113 me eee Fl CHAPTER CL. THE SECOND JOURNEY ON THE CONTINENT, Tue reader has-doudtless ere this bezun to cx- perience some surprise that we have av lone ap- peared tu lose sight of Jo¢eiyn Loftus: Lut we now propose to turn onr attention to that-excelient and high-souled young ran. It will be recollected that when last we saw h m it was in London, whither he had proceeded from Canterbury in obedience to @ letter privately written to him by the Princess Sophia, I¢ was on that occasion also that he had attended the private fheatricals at Carlton House, and that he had experienced such strange feelings on beholding Lady Sackville upon the mimic stage. Nor less willit be remembered that the interview which he succeeded in obtaining with the Prince Regent, terminated only in inspiring him with loathing and disgust for tha royal vuluptaary., Ladexd, so con- vicced was he of the uumitizated profligacy and dissoluteness of the Priuce, that he feit persuaded it would be altorether useleas to intercede wth such a man on behalf of his injured wife. There- fore was it that Jocelyn, after having written a letter to Venetia and after a secyud interview with fhe Princess Sophia, returned to Canterbary. But, as a matter of course his presenoa at the private theatricals had been duly reporsed to Mrs. Owen at Richilond and to the Qaeen at Windsor ; aud as it was believed from the fact of his having songht an audience of the Prince that ho was still interesting himaelf in the affairs of the Princess of Whiles, the conspirators had immediately resolved to place aspy upon his actious, Tons was it that on his return to Canterbury he was folluwed by a trustworthy ageut of those conspirators. We must here observe that at his second inter- view with the Princess Sophia he hdd obtained from her Royal Highness a letter of introduction and recommendation to the Princess of Wales: and provided with this credential, he resolved to put his already well-considered scheme iuto exeou- * tion—namely, to set out on Another journey to seek the injured wife of the Regent. Asa matter of course he dared not pass through France; aud }, he had to choose between two distinct routes in, order to reach Italy where the Princess was at that time—for it was the month of Dacember to which we are how fur a brief space referring. In the first place Jocelyn might procded through Beigium, along the Rhine to Switzerland, acd thence into Jitly: or in the second plage, he rehghe embark on board some vessel bound fur the Madi- terranean and thus laud on the Ltalian coast, But in consequence gf the inclemengy of the wintry: season aud the probable delay tit sight: ‘arise from ‘adverse winds, he renounced ‘the. inttar proe ject in favour: of the tormer one 5 abd tb tien arse he was the more inclined by the. went } sion of. the harming ate ta pate fat the thought of his encona the ava. ‘But we should observe that sithvugt the beantifal he soln, compelled to j-sand thoash she misgivings Sint. he night becume exposed to Hooker she did not striss Bed dissuade him from hie‘ generous purpose, be- *! ganse she expérienoed thot deepest sympathy and CONNIE OOO cS) CO