The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 181: what you’re looking at

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

A STRANGE ADVENTURE 155 of the Amazon, and she drew from beneath the prince’s pillow the golden chain to which was suspended the key of curious workmanship. Therewith opening the desk of his Royal Highness, she proceeded to ransack its contents, and in the course of a few minutes she found the papers for which she was searching. “Tis as I thought,” she said to herself, again speaking low and murmuringly with her liquid, musical voice. ‘ The traitor, the false friend! But you shall be avenged, Meagles; you shall be avenged, even if I do not succeed in procuring your restoration to this country.” Then, locking the desk and replacing the chain with the key underneath the pillow of the prince, Lady Lade secured the papers about her person and took her departure as noiselessly as possible by the secret staircase. When his Royal Highness awoke at a late hour in the morning, the first conviction that broke upon his mind was that he had a most distressing headache, and then the inci- dents of the night began to present themselves in due order to his memory. He recollected the hideous dream which had made him endure such exquisite tortures, and those painful reminiscences were followed by that of the visit of Lady Lade. Yes, she had been with him, — but for how long? He knew not. The last incident that dwelt in his mind was a laughing proposal which she made him that each should drink a dram of brandy, and he recollected that he had as good-humouredly assented to the proposition and taken his share first, she herself pouring it out and handing it to him. Then he must have fallen into a deep sleep, for he remem- bered nothing more. | But she was gone, the beautiful huntress had disappeared; and a vague suspicion of something wrong slowly sprang up in the mind of the prince. Her mysterious visit, that con- versation about Meagles, the dead sleep which had fallen upon him the moment after he had drunk the brandy, the departure of the lady before he awoke, the unpleasant sensations which he now experienced, and which struck him as being the result of a powerful narcotic, all these circum- stances appeared to link themselves together and form a chain of evidence to support the misgivings which he felt. (C(O) Anyi 6)(0)()