The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 315: what you’re looking at

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

304 1 “(> Hannah Lightfoot! Hannah Lightfoot! thou art avenged —terribly avenged now /” And the scalding tears trickled between the snrivelled fingers of George IIT. For, oh! to the memory of this old man came back, with a whelmiug tide, all the incidents of his early love,—all his false vows—all his unredeemed pledges—all his flagrant perjury! Vivid and blasting, as the lightning flash, came it all back : crushing and annihilating as the thunder-stroke, fell the tremendous weight of recollections upon his mind! Monarch though he were, he was com- pelled to feel as a man: tyrant as he was over his millions of enslaved subjects, enslaved in return was he to the merciless despotism of his own con- science. Miserable, miserable King! how little wast thoa thes /—how insignificant in the bitterness of thy woe! From the towering height of his lofty station and from the dizzy summit of his insatiable am- bition, did he command the attention of the wniverse,—he who could not command a single one of all the agonising thoughts that racked him now ! He who awed the nations, shrank appalled from the ghastliness of his own ideas. The man who had sought to retain the glorious gem of transat- lantic power in his own regal diadem,—-who was even at that moment studying to roll back the portentous tide of democracy which was sweeping over France and threatening to dash its waves against the white cliffs of Albion,—who kept his people enchained in iron bonds and sent forth his armies to ride rough-shod over the necks of his wronged subjects when assembling to petition for tueir rights,—he who did and was doing all this, was now crouching, and cowering, and grovelling oeneath the spectral shapes which his own imagi- nation conjured up! Yes—the monarch who lacerated the millions with knotted scourges, now felt his own conscience whipped with scorpions ;— and he who had no remorse for the countless hearts which his tyranny made to weep so bitterly, was now himself inwardly shedding tears of blood in the companction of his soul for the memory of Hannah Lightfoot! For several minutes did George III thus remain a prey to the most torturing reflections,—atterly un- mindful of the presence of Tim Meagies and the Amazon, who were all the while exchanging looks of satisfaction at the evident success of their pro- jects. At length the King suddenly resollected their presence: and, ashamed of the emotions to which he had given way, his Majesty wiped away the tears from his cheeks—smothered his harrowing sensatious as well as he was able—and, rising from the arm-chair, said, “ Mr. Meaglies you shall have the Marquisate as soon as the affair can be arranged.” “With a pension to enable me to support the title” added Tim. “ Be itso,” rejoined his Majesty : then, after a few moments’ deep reflection, he said, “ But this matter must be managed without scandal—or rather, with as little scandal as possible. You know that you have no ostensible or apparent claims upon the Crown for any reward or recompense at all: we must therefore invent those claims. Do you understand me?” “To some extent, sire,” answered Tim. “ What does your Majesty propose ?” “J will examine the list of extinct peeragns with- out delay,” returmed the King, speaking io a slow and measured tone ; “and we will pitch apon some Marquisate, to which you shall lay claim. The necessary documents to establish that claim can easily b6 prepared; and when the matter comes before the proper Committee in the House of Lords, I will take care that the decision shall be rendered in your favour. This may be an affair of some months : indeed, it cannot possibly be settled until the beginning of next year:—and in the meantime——” “In the meantime the papers shall be sealed up and religiously kept from every eye,” added Mea- gies. “It is to your own interest to observe that con- dition of our bargain,” said the King. “Our in- terview is now at an end.” ° And bowing slightly, his Majesty turned abruptly away: while Tim Meagles and the Amazon with- drew, overjoyed at the complete success that had attended their second visit to the King of Eng- land. ° CHAPTER CCI. TRE SEARCH AYTER A SOX.—HOEROB! Eagty on the ensuing morning the Court removed from London to Windsor Castle;—and George LIT, who had exhibited symptoms of alarming restless- ness and irritability from the moment of his inter- view with Meagles and Lady Lade, shut himself up in his own apartment under pretence of having several State documents to examine. The unhappy monarch now experienced a deep and irresistible yearning to behold his son ;—not either of those sons whom his wife Queen Char- lotte had borne him,—but that son who had owed oe ce to the amour with Hannah Light- oot. The reader may have seen from the terms in which Meagles explained the nature of the corre- spondence and other papers in his posseasion, that the King had all along been aware of tho substite- tion of his own child by the beauteous Quakeress for the dead offspring of Sir William and Lady Stamford. Such was indeed the case. From the very first the monarch knew of that circumstance - but as years and y rolled on, he had thought less and less of the that he had an unac- knowledged son in the world. Hannah Lightfoot carried the secret with her to the grave ;—and Sir present Sir Richard Staroford succeeded to the title and estates, it was under the impression that he really and troly was the son of the deceased baronet and his lady ;—and King George LII, per- ceiving how religiously the secret had been kept, never felt the least inclination to enlighten Sir Richard upon the point. When Sir Richard’s misfortanes commenced and he was accused of the fearful crimes recorded in the opening chapter of our tale, the King expe- rienced emotions of sorrow and alarm at the pre- dicament in which that man who was really his son had become involved. But he dared not in- terfere : and he was compelled likewise to throw a - Gm» DOO SS