The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 215: what you’re looking at

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ania Gig amp © [amine © me & 22 “T will have nothing to do with it!” exclaimed the Duchess, her countenance suddenly glowing with indignation, as she drew her magnificent form proudly up to its full height and cast a look of haughty anger upon the Prince. “Then the bailiff must be summoned to attest the deed—that’s all,” observed his Royal Highness, with cool insolence. “Ah! spare me this crowning indignity, Geor- giana!” exclaimed Mrs. Fitzherbert. “ Let us yield to the despotic will of ——that heartless man,” she added, the words hissing between her lips with the spite of a serpent. “If it be your desire that I should sign the paper, my dearest friend,” cried the Duchess, “I will do so: but not unless.” “Yes—better your attestation, Georgiana, than that of a stranger who will make the contents of this deed the subject of his tavern-talk,” replied Mrs. Fitzherbert, with @ thrilling acrimony in her tone. The Duchess accordingly affixed her signature as witness to the deed, which the Prince instantly took up and secured about his person. He then pointed to the Rank-notes which lay upon the table—resumed his cloak and hat—bowed coldly and distantly to the two ladies—and quitted the room. An hour afterwards Mrs. Fitzherbert, attended by one of the Duchess of Devonshire’s lady's- maids, was proceeding in a travelling-carriage to her Grace’s villa near Aylesbury, in which retire- ment the unhappy lady determined to remain until | him the bustle of the Prince’s marriage should be over. But, Oh! was it not with an aching heart and a recling brain that she was now compelled to con- template the overthrow of all her dearest hopes? —was it not with a deep, deep bitterness that in her soul she cursed that weakness on her part which had so seriously compromised her with the Marquis of Bellois and also in the a@air of the self-styled Miss Plantagenet, as to enable her royal husband to seize upon those incidents as weapons. to turn against herself? Ruined—crushed—trampled under foot by the man who had so lately appeared tv cherish her, the unhappy lady found but a partial relief in the floods of tears which the agonising sense of her fallen condition now wrung from her eyes, as she was whirled along the road towards that place of socounion whither her wounded pride prompted her to By CHAPTER CLXXIV. LADY JERSEY. On quitting the sponging-house, the Prince of Wales muffied himself up in his cloak in sucha manner as to conceal his countenance so as to escape recognition ; and in a few minutes he entered @ plain carriage which was waiting for him near the bettom of Lane. He immediately or- dered the coachman to drive to St. James’s Palace, where the King, Queen, Princes, and Princesses— in fine, all the Royal Family—were assembled to receive Caroline of Brunswick, who was expected in a few hours. The Prince of Wales sought an THE SIYSTERIAS. immediate interview with his father alone; and when they were together, his Royal Highness handed him the document which Mrs. Fitzherbert had just signed in the sponving-house. “There, sire, is the paper which you demanded of me,” said the Prince. “It contains the ac- knowledgment on a certain lady’s part——” “Which I wanted—eh ?” interrupted the King “ Well, well—I am glad of that—glad of that: and now Pitt will not hesitate to get your debts paid for you.” Scume farther discourse took place upon this oc- casion, and upon that topic, between the King and the Prince: but it is unnecessary to place it upon record. We may however observe that his Ma- jesty, after a long interview of two hours with his son, recommended that he should return to Carlton House and compose his thoughts so as to be enabled to meet the Princess of Brunswick with a smiling countenance. To this proposal the heir-apparent cheerfully assented: but inatead of repairing homeward, he went and amused himself at a private billiard-table for an hour. He then drove to Carlton House, it being now two o'clock in the afternoon: and, on arriving there, he learnt from Germain that the Countess of Jersey was in one of the drawing-rooms. “ Ah! then the Princess has arrived in London?” murmured the heir-apparent, with a tightening sensation at the heart: and, throwing off his hat and cloak, he at once proceeded to the apartment where Lady Jersey was anxiously waiting to see This lady, who has not been hitherto introduced to our readers, was one of the numerous mistresses of the royal voluptuary. Her beauty was of that dark, warm, and glow- ing style which invests its possessor with an air of eternal youthfalness and defies the ravages both of dissipation and time. Thus even the closest ob- server of the phases of woman’s appearance at the different stages of her life, would have been able to hazard no nearer conjecture relative to the age of j.ady Jersey than that she was between thirty and forty—hut whether nearer the former or the latter point, it was impossible to decide. And yet that conjecture would have been erroneous: for she was now in her forty-second year ! She was tall and exquisitely formed—a little in- clined to stoutness, and yet not too much to impair the gracefulness of her movements or the elegance of her figure. Her bust was grandly developed, as was usually the case with all the Prince's favourites: but her waist was naturally delicate without the need of undue compression ;—and her limbs were exqui- sitely modelled, so as to give grace to her attitades and render her walk light and her bearing dignified and imposing. In her person were thus united the luxuriousness of full and glowing charms and the elegant flexibility which rendered her as brilliantly attractive in the dance as she was fitted by nature and appearance for amorous dalliance and sensuous enjoyment. The warmth of her temperament was indeed evi- dent in every turn and expression of her features, where a voluptuous softness was mingled with a bolder and more decided look, denoting strength of mind and an unprincipled character. But over these indications of mental power and evil passions, that languishing ardour which arose from her sen- ANICLOO© (C SS