The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 313: what you’re looking at

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

— eee alone. It was not however Ledy Saxondale’s pur- pose to tarry for any length of time at the castle: she immediately instituted inquiries amongst the servants in respect to the mode of Lord Saxon- dale’s with his wife. She learnt that it was about one in the afternoon, three days pre- viously, that he had arrived there in a post-chaise, which was immediately dismissed—that having been closeted for about an hour with Adelaide, he had given instructions for the carriage to be got in readiness—and that the equipage had borne him, his wife, and the maid, to Gainsborough, whence it had been sent back from the hotel at which they had halted in that town. tinumg her inquiries, she ascertained that the fugitives had departed in a post-chaise for Ches- terfield. Once upon the track, Lady Saxondale was determined not to abandon it ; and she accord- ingly continued her travels. ‘For several days did she thus journey, tracing the fagitives from Chee- ter to Derby—from Derby to Shrewsbury—from into Mon : and there the trail was lost. Notwi the minuteness and fhe anwvaried erseverance with whieh her inquiries were followed up, she was thrown com- pletely off the ecent. But inasmuch as she had reached a point where the clue suddenly ceased, she came to the conclusion that those whom she sought were not very far distant. Perhaps they had settled somewhere in that part of Wales? At all events, she ceased to fear that they had gone abroad : for if euch had been their intention, they would not have come in a direction diametrically opposite to the Stout tadeod, foachow pamnaih, tng had indeed, fearing pursuit, they had thus come out of their way to throw the pursuers out. But despite the probability of such a as Edmund was now advised one 0o shrewd and cunning as and to receive one letter in reply. This letter in- portunity of carrying into execution his scheme with regard to Madge Somers; for that William Deveril was almost always at the villa, and it was next to impossible to attempt anything while he was there to protect the invalid. Harold however on the alert at any moment when an opportunity for action should present iteelf—and, that an old gardener employed on VDeveril’s premises, was secretly in his pay and would give whatecever in- formation was requisite. we reepect te se herself, Lord Harold’s letter Ledy Saxondale that the woman had experienced it 310 THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. ‘ denly arrived in a post-chaise, unattended and a relapse—that she had been again at death's door —that she was but slowly ing—that the faculty of speech was still absent—and that she had not strength sufficient to renew her former endeavours to write anything upon a alate. Thus no positive injury had been sustained by Lady Saxondale’s interests on account of this delay in getting the woman surreptitiously spirited off from Deveril’s villa. The receipt of this letter, while she was yet in Montgomeryshire, put an end to her ledyship’s suspense as to what might be doing in London ; and thinking it just possible that some fresh in- telligence might have been received at the castle, of her son’s movements with his wife and the maid, she resolved to take Lincolnshire on her way back to London. But in the meanwhile, what had Edmund and after his escape from the don be had Led» occuatiation with hie eile, and, as Lady Saxondale had foreseen, Adelaide coun- selled him to go into some strict retirement until he should come of age. While the horrors of in- carceration were still fresh in Edmund’s mirid, he needed no large amount of persuasion to induce him to adopt this course. Adelaide was not anxious to return to France: Edmund disliked travelling on the Continent; and therefore it was resolved to settle themselves in Wales. travelled post, until they reached a certain town in Montgomeryshire, where they dismissed the chaise. At the same time they removed to another hotel in this same town—adopted another name than the fictitious one which they had borne on their arrival—and from this second hotel they pro- ceeded by a public conveyance to another town. Thus was it that they successfully broke off the clue which, until that point, Ledy Saxondale had skilfully followed up. They settled in a small but comfortable house in the neighbourhood of that town at which they definitively halted ; and for the first fortnight the change of scene, although it was the drear winter season, was sufficient to amuse Edmund’s mind— especially as his wife lavished upon him all those blandishing cajoleries which she was 80 woll enabled to exercise, and which she used for the purpose of rivetting the chains which her beauty The | had from the very first cast around him. But at the expiration of that fortnight Edmund was sud- denly seized with a deep disgust for the monotony of the life he was leading. A capricious change of this kind was quite consistent with his shallow intellect and frivolous ideas. He could not bear living under the plain name of Mr. Jones—being no longer “my-lorded"” — having no servants to wait deferentially upon him-—forced by the cr- cumstances of the to drink wines and per- take of fare which were sorry enough for one accustomed to have his appetite pampered — no carriage nor horses—and the scenery nob merely wearing the aspect of samences, but bko- wise a bleak wintry dreariness, around him. Even the very local library iteelf was defi- cient in attractions for one of his capacity: and the only source of cheering thoughts was to be informed | found in the blandishmente of his wife. But even in respect te her, certain cold shuddering alarms Se Pc a i a a ge SS a: CO IMULUG CY DOO CS (COL