The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 316: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. 305 AV Vil veil over his affliction—or at least attribute it to some other cause. The newspapers of the time had represented the fact of the extraordinary resem- blance which Sir Richard Stamford bore to the Royal Family;—and the King often sighed pro- foundly in secret as those statements recalled s0 vividly to his recollection all the incidents of his eirly love and his amour with Hannah Lightfoot. ' It had been therefore with an unfeigned joy that his Majesty, after anxiously watching the progress of events and greedily devouring all that the public prints detailed with regard to Sir Richard Stam- ford,—it was with an indescribable relief, we say, that the King read at length of the baronet’s com- plete exculpation from the menstrous charges laid against him. And now that any circumstances connected with Lady Letitia Lade had bared the wounds that time had failed to heal altogether,—and now that the minutest associations belonging to the history and fate of Hannah Lightfoot, were aroused to new life in the depth of his soul,—it is not to be wondered at if the miserable monarch were led by thove ro- tninisoences and those feelings to experience a strong, a natural, and irresistible yearning at least to behold the man on whom he had stamped his image. . Persons who have offended against the laws of society or of nature, are oft-times moved by sin- gular and irresistible impulses to revisit the scene of their iniquity, even though years and years may have passed away—or else to make atonement by anony- mous means to the individuals whom they wronged in earlier days. The undetected murderer is sure to ex- perience a hankering and longing to return to the the amour of his earlier years was brought back | spot where he buried his victém; and the inscrutable more vividly than ever to the memory of the mo-, hand of destiny will be certain sooner or later to oon- narch,—now that his interview with Meagles and | duct him thither, even in spite of himself. The man 91 eS, en, ? CONNEC OOO co