The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 303: what you’re looking at

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

292 THE MYSTERIES. Tim Meagles and the Amazon then quitted Wind- sor Castle, well pleased with the result of their in- terview. CHAPTER LXXXIIL \ BE PRINCESS AMELIA Tue favourite daughter of George III, upon leaving the King in oraer that he might grant an audience to Mr. Meagles and his fair companion, retired into an adjacent room, where she endeavoured to amuse herself with a book. But feeling convinced that something unpleasant had occurred in respect to her brother the Prince of Wales, and dreading that such intelligence might produce a disagreeable effect upon her father, her uneasiness became most painful; and when she heard the King talking in a loud and angry tone in the next room, she was quite unable to endure the torture of suspense any longer. Approaching the door communicating with that apartment, she became a listener just at that point in the discourse when her father, interrupting the Amagon’s narrative, dwelt with such emphatic reiteration on the word “misfortune.” But it was not until several more sentences had been exchanged between his Majesty and the Amazon, that the Princess Amelia learnt the entire truth: namely, that her eldest brother had seduced a young lady of respectable family—that the name of the victim was Octavia Clarendon—that she was related to Lord Marchmont—and that a peerage and pension for the father were suggested as the means of hushing up the girl’s disgrace and the heir-apparent’s treachery. The Princess Amelia was shocked, certainly—but not particularly amazed. The irregularities, gaieties, and gallantries of her eldest brother were too nume- rous, too notorious, and too flagrant to be entirely a secret to her; and indeed, the King was often wont to deplore, when alone with his favourite daughter, the course of life which the Prince of Wales was leading. She was not surprised, then, we say, when from the discourse now passing between his Majesty and the Amazon she gathered the particulars of her brother’s new freak and the embarrassment in which it had plunged him: nor was she astonished when her sire so peremptorily and irascibly refused the peerage which was demanded for Mr. Clarendon. But no pen can depict her amazement and indig- nation when she heard Meagles take up the thread of the conversation and utter dark menaces. She could scarcely believe her ears: she listened with suspended breath;—her bosom was as motionless and still as if she were a marble statue! “ J mean, sire, that his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales will not fall alone. If he sink beneath the weight of infamy and shame, he will drag down others with him—yes—even though it be his own L ] Such were the words which the Princess Amelia Yaught: such were the words that her brother's sMissary dared address to her own father—the King of England! But the scene which followed was of more ominous significancy and more tremendously mysterious im- port. For Meagles grew bolder: he spoke in a tone the rapidly exchanged but emphatic sentences cen- cerning the certificate. The Princess Amelia was stupified—asstounded. Pale as marbie, she leant against the door for sup- port. She heard her father sob—and she could net fly to his assistance. Her limbs were paralysed—her very breath was suspended. A dumb, dead bewil- derment was upon her: an awful consternation held her powerless — motionless — voiceless. Even hee eyes did not wink—her lips remained apart—her breast was upheaved and still. _ What could the document be that Meagles had produced {—what spell did it exercise over her sire? —what crime or misfortune on his part had endowed it with euch appalling inflaence ? Fleet as lightning did these questions flach through her brain :—but how was her imagination to suggest the answers to them f Hark !—the silence in the next room is now broken again: the King speaks. She listens, as if her life were dependent on catching the words which he utters. He demands that the document be given up to him. “Weagles refuses. Nay—he even declares with zonfidenc: that its price is a dukedom ! A cold tremor—as if a snake were slowly coiling its slimy folds about her—passed gradually over the form of the Princess: for that her father must have committed some dreadful crime, or that Meagles was the depositor of some tremendous secret respecting the Royal Family, was evident. Otherwise, how would this man have dared not only to bandy words with the King of England—but likewise to dictate his own terms in a tone proving that he had not mis- calculated the extent of the terrible influence which he thus wielded over the unhappy monarch. And now the Princess Amelia heard her sire as- sent to those conditions—nay, even humiliate bim- self so far as to admit that he must use subterfage and artifice with his Prime Minister in order to pro- cure the peerage and the pension for Mr. Ciaren- don. A death-like sensation came upon the wretched Princess. She loved her father as dearly as ever child was devoted to a parent: and the discourse whic she overheard had revealed things—or rather excited alarms and apprehensions of so vague, un- certain, yet terrible a character that the chill of the grave appeared to have seised upon her. But this feeling rapidly yielded to one more intente and ex- cruciating still: for when she thought of the deep humiliatien to which her father was reduced—and that father a King—she felt as if red-hot iron were searing her heart and drops of molten lead trickling upon her brein. Then—in order to avoid giving ut- terance to the hysterical cry which rose to her very lips—ahe suddenly tore herself away from the door to which her ear had hitherto been rivetted; and, with steps that were staggering and uneven although so rapid, she fled to her own apartment. Throwing herself upon a sofa, the young Princess burst into an agouy of weeping. Torrents of tears now poured forth from the eyes that had hitherto been so hot and «ry; and her bosom—that fair virgin breast — heaved with, convulsive sobe, as if her heart must break But in a few minutes that flood of anguish was followed by the relief which tears invariably afford ; aud the violence of her affliction subsided. By de- grees, however, she experienced a suffocating senaa- of easy defiance to his Majesty ;—and then came ; tion—a want of the freah air—and a longing to feel ECOMICOOOlKS.CO oe