The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 368: what you’re looking at

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‘a. re THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. thing, too, in the polish of her manners and the easy elegance of her deportment, which might be supposed to exercise no ordi influence upon the rougher nature of her husband. She spoke French fluently: this was the language in which they were accustomed to converse ; and being in- telligent as well as accomplished, Juliana could woe her discourse sparkling, winning, or fasci- nating, according to her purpose or her humour. Moreover, the Count was proud of his handsome English wife; and a husband’s pride of the object of his choice is in iteelf a degree of admiration which cannot be inseparable from love. The first two months of their residence near the little French village was happy enough : for as we have before observed, they had just sufficient society to prevent the time from hanging heavily on their hands, and for preventing their mode of existence from appearing monotonous. Juliana rode well on horseback; and she liked: to aceom- pany her husband amidst the beautiful: ‘scenery of the neighbourhood where they dwelt. They drove out too in the phaeton;—and in their close carriage they visited occasionally of an evening the few families with whom they had become acquainted. Juliana had written to her mother to mention her ; and Lady Saxondale was but too glad to have thus got rid of a daughter whom for some time past she had ceased to love, but towards whom she had been compelled to act with a certain degree of apparent kindness, inasmuch as Juliana was acquainted with the secret of the tremendous imposture in to Edmund. It was the month of September when we intro- duce our reader to the cottage where the Count and Countess of Toledo are now residing. Their | from somewhat extravagant mode of hife—the purchase of horses and carriages—and the sumptuousness of the entertainments which they gave, and which though few, were nevertheless costly in the ex- treme,—had by this time absorbed the greater por- tion of the available funds which the Count had brought with him from Paris. One day, he men- tioned to his wife that it would be needful to com- municate with his intendant; and as no tidings had been received of any overt measure of a hostile character being adopted towards him, either in the form of proclaimed proscription or of confiscation, he suggested that it would be as well if he were to pay a secret and stealthy visit to his estate in order to transact personally his business with his steward. Juliana was averse to this pro- ject, inasmuch as by the mere fact of her husband’s proposing to repair with so much precaution to his doteain, i it was sufficiently evident be feared to be - He however assured her that there was little danger of such a result, as he could rely upon the fidelity of his dependante—but that being liable to hostile proceedings, he of course purposed to adopt the precautions he had named. She her- self offered to undertake the journey and see the intendant : but he observed that it would look in the village if she were thus to absent herself while ha remained at home. Then she proposed that his valet should be entrusted with the mission: but the Count objected to place so strong a temptation as a considerable sum of money in the man’s hands, Thus al] her objections and her propositions were overruled ; and the Count himself set off on the expedition. 367 He remained absent for about ten days, during which interval Juliana experienced more or less uneasiness on his behalf. At the expiration of this period he returned home safe, at a late hour one night, bringing with him a certain amount of money—but by no means eo large as she had been led to expect. This however he readily accounted for, by stating that the intendant had been compelled to lay out considerable sums on the irs of the mansion when he first received the intelligence that it was to be gotten in good order for the reception of = mistress. In respect to his own ition in a political sense, it remained unal either for the better or the worse: but it wae still dangerous for him to think of return- ing openly to Spain, so long as his enemy con- tinued a member of the Ministry. It was about this time that Juliana read in one of the French newspapers that the Marquis of Villebelle had been transferred from the Neapo- litan Embassy to that of Madrid, thus receiving ® promotion in the diplomatic hierarchy. It far- ther appeared that the Marquis and 88, accompanied by their suite, were about to proceed by sea from Naples to Spain, eo as to avoid the circuitous route of an overland journey. As the Count frequently assured Juliana that the present Spanish Ministry could not possibly last long,— and that as the next one would most prubably consist of personages more friendly disposed to- wards himself, he might expect to be shortly en- abled to return openly to his estat se,—she began to reflect that as they might possibly visit Madrid, where she would encounter her sister and brothez- arian, it was bad policy on her part to abstain corresponding with them. She therefore wrote to Constance, acquainting her with her marriage, and highly eulogising her husband. I¢ happened that the Count was going into the vil- lage at the moment when Juliana had finished writing this letter; and he accardingly took it with him to put in the post. Jdays went by— they grew into wecks—and still no answer was returned. Nevertheless Juliana read in the news- papers that in the interval the Marquis and Marchioness of Villebelle had arrived in safety at Madrid, and were duly installed in the mansion of the French Embassy in that city. She fancied that her letter must have miscarried: for she thought that Constance was too generous-hearted to cherish any rancour on account of her pre- cipitate flight from the Durands’ villa after her affair with the Viscount de Chateauneuf. She ac- cordingly wrote again; and the Count, taking charge of the letter, promised to see that the postmaster was particular in consigning it to the mail-bag. Again did days and weeks go past; and still no response came. Then Juliane could arrive at no other conclusion than that her sister was mortally offended with her; and her pride prevented her from penning a third epistle. Christmas was now drawing near; and agan were the Count’s funds at a low ebb: again there- fore did he resolve upon paying another stealthy Visit to his estates in Catalonia am the other side of the boundary. On this second occa- sion he remained absent for a fortnight,—at the expiration of which time he returned safe and sound, and with a considerable sum of money Juliana was rejoiced at the thought that her bus- (COL (C DOO CS (COL