The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 311: what you’re looking at

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206 and this germinating love at first sight—for suoh indeed it was—produced vague alarms, soft mis. givings, and tender apprehensions never known before ! “ Here we must part, Sir Richard,” she said, after they had walked on fora little while in profound silence. “Part !—what—so soon?” he exclaimed: and had death been the penalty for giving utterance to those words, he would have uttered them all the same—so0 tuowitting, se improvised, so involuntary was the ejaculation. “Yeos—I must return to his Majesty,” said the Prinoesg, now suddenly reocollecting the incidents that had sent her forth from the Castle to cool her burning brow in the park—those incidents which had gradually glided out of her memory in propor- tion as her interview with the baronet became more tensely interesting. “ Farewell, then, generous hearted Princess *” cried Sir Richard Stamford. “No words can con- vey all the illimitable gratitude which I experience towards you. But let me give your Royal Highness this assurance—that henceforth, when I wish to shape in my imagination the angels that are in heaver, I shall think of you.” Thus apeaking, he raised her hand to his lips— kissed it fervently—and then hurried away. The Princess Amelia watched his retreating form for nearly a minute, at the expiration of which she turned with a profound sigh towards the nearest avenue leading to the Castle. CHAPTER LXXXIV. CAMILLA. [MMEDIATELY after their interview with the King, Tim Meagles and Lady Lade went back to the hotel —paid the bill—ordered the horses—and returned at a smart pace to London. It was about three o'clock in the afternoon when they reached the metropolis. The Amazon then hastened to her own home, tb satisfy her doting and purblind husband with some excuse to account for her absence; while her paramour repaired to Carlton House. Meagles found the Prince of Wales alone in his own chamber, not the slightest step towards a recon- ciliation between himself and Mrs. Fitzherbert hav- ing been made by either party : nor indeed, after the understanding to whieh the heir-apparent had come with his friend and counsellor, did he for an instant desire that the quarrel should be patched up. On the contrary, he thought that it would lead all the more easily to that complete rupture which his in- tensely eelfich nature had contemplated and which Meagles had promised to carry into effect. In order, therefore, to avoid the possibility of meeting Mra. Fitzherbert, the Prince of Wales had shut himself up in his own room ever since the quar- rel on the night of the ball; and during this interval he had divided the time between solitary drinking and feasting bis imagination with the charms of Mrs. Brace’s beautiful seamstress, Camilla Morton. The Prince was overjoyed when Meagies, on ap- pearing before him, at once put him out of suspense by declaring that the peerage would be granted to Mr. Clarendon. TRE MYSTERIES, “And how the devil did you manage it, my dea, Tim t” demanded his Royal Highness, chuckling heartily. “TI thought it was an agreement between us that you should ask me no questions relative to the means which I might employ,” said Meagles, flinging him- seit upon a seat and slashing his boot with his riding- whip, “Ah! truly—and so it was,” exclaimed the heir- apparent. “Then you saw the King ?” “Yes—we had a long chat with the old gentle- map,” observed Meagles, speaking of his Majesty in a free and easy, off-hand kind of a fashion. “We!” ejaculated the Prince. “And who the devil went with you, then ?” “The Amazon—only the Amazon,” answered Tim, quite coolly. “ Nonsense! you are humbugging me” cried the heir-apparent. “T assure you that it is the truth,” said Meaglos, with s smile. “Lady Lade not only went with me —but likewise appeared before the King in her usual garb.” ‘“‘ And what in the name of everything sublime or ridiculous did our revered parent say?” demanded the Prince. : “Only that my wife—as his Majesty took her to be—was a monstrous fine woman,” returned Meagles, “But let me tell you that without the Amazon I might not have succeeded at all. She menaced at one moment—coaxed at another—then reasoned— then pleaded—and in fine helped me considerably,” he added, thus exaggerating the real truth in order to prevent the Prince from suspecting that he was in reality possessed of the Lightfoot certificate and had used it at Windsor. “ Capital! — capital!” ejaculated the heir-appa- rent, highly delighted at theidea of Lady Lade ap- | pearing with her huntress-garb in the presence of the ceremonious old King. “And when is this peerage to be granted ?” “Ina week or ten days: and in the meantime you are to hold your tongue about it. His Majesty-is going to manage it very cleverly: he means to wheedle Pitt out of it by dint of sheer artifice ;— and therefore if a hint, or even the ghost of a ramour should get abroad in the interval——” “ Nota sentence shall fa!l from my lips, Tim, until the proper time,” exclaimed the Prince. “ If I hear or see anything of the Miss Clarendons, I will manage to appease them for the present somehow or another. And now that you have contrived to settle one thing for me—for I consider it to be as good as done—when shall you set about the other ?” “To-morrow, my dear Prince,” replied Meagles. “ At about two o’clock in the afternoon I shall make my appearance in a genteel suit of black and solicit an immediate interview with Mrs. Fitzherbert. [ cannot of course say how long our parley may last; but this I promise your Royal Highness—that she will not sleep beneath your roof to-morrow night.” “ Bravo, Tim” ejaculated the Prince. “ You are really an excellent fellow. By the bye, I have not found the papers, you know——” “J dare say they will turn up some day or an- other,” interrupted Meagles, rising from his seat. “ Farewell for the present. To-morrow afternoon I shall pay my respects to your Royal Highness again —the moment I have made all necessary arrange- ments with Mrs. Fitzherbert.” COMGROO S COMM