The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 54: what you’re looking at

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

ae ee eee | — = a (wage eee ee — = — — glimpee of his master’s countenance, saw that it was deadly pale, with the traces of all strongly wrought feelings upon it. Hastily closing the door again, the Duke looked at the address; and bot recognising the writing, opened the letter: but the instant his eye settled on the first words of its contents, he dashed it upon the carpet, and trampled it under foot. Ashamed of himself, the very next instant, for this impotent manifestation of vindictive fury, the Duke of Marchmont picked the letter up; and prompted by an irresistible feeling of curiosity to see what Bertram could pos- sibly have to adduce in the face of evidence which his Grace ded as so decisive, he sat down and read the letter through. It consisted chiefly of broken sentences, solemn oaths, sacred adjurations, ~—all attesting the innocence of the Duchess; and there ‘were some incoherent allusions to a long. existing love between them, as well as to a cruel TUE MYSTERIES OF THE Court. Mrs. Bailey in order to make her the Duke's wife; so that a gleam of light began to dawn in unto the comprehension of Elisa’s husband. “Good heavens!” he said to himself, with a fecling of horror at the lengths to which he had gone, “if it be indeed true that in a moment of weakness, and under the influence of sorrow’s avony at the idea of parting, Bertram should have caught her in his arms, but that she was innocent! Yet no—I cannot think it! I was prepared for protestations of innocence ; and I even said that the deeper the guilt, the more impassioned ite de- nial. No, no: they are guilty—this viper of a nephew—that wanton of a woman! But their love of other times—and that deception practised a9 on her ‘ | And the Duke was steggered. He pressed his hand to his brow: he would have given worlds to discover that the wife whom he had loved so leception practised by her deceased father and , fondly, and of whom he had been so proud, was No. 6.—FOURTH SERLES. = rrr, EE (CO an (G DOO (CO