The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 86: what you’re looking at

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

64 THE COURT OF LONDON those letters. For Mrs. Fitzherbert had become a mother during her foreign tour; yes, that woman whom he had married, his own wife, had born a child to the Marquis of Bellois. Dashing down the papers, the Prince of Wales started from his seat and began to pace the room in an agitated manner. | It was true that his connection with Mrs. Fitzherbert was now completely broken off, true also that she had been ignominiously expelled, as it were, from Carlton House, true that he sought not to exercise any further control over her. But he was wounded to the quick at the idea that he had so long been her dupe, that the late partner of his bed had played the harlot in a foreign clime and with a foreign noble, and that he had for years cherished the belief that, whether with him or absent from him, she had remained faithful to her love and her vows. Then there sprang up in the heart of the prince a bitter, burning hatred against the Marquis de Bellois, whom he looked upon as a successful rival, nay, whom he even re- garded in the same light as a husband views the seducer of his wife. And upon this French refugee the Prince of Wales vowed to be avenged sooner or later, and by some means or another, he cared not how, but he hoped it would be soon. The secret of Tim Meagles’s success in compelling Mrs. Fitzherbert to leave Carlton House so abruptly was now fully explained. It was evident to the prince that he must have menaced that lady with exposure in respect to the amour whereof he possessed such damning proofs. Nor less did the possession of the Lightfoot certificate afford a com- plete clue to the tactics adopted by Meagles in negotiating with the king respecting the peerage and pension which had since been conferred, according to promise, upon Mr. Claren- don. : “Thank God,” exclaimed the Prince of Wales, as he secured all the documents in his desk, ‘‘ thank God that I thought of sending Germain to rifle my late friend’s lodgings. The incident at Mrs. Brace’s this afternoon, although at first so menacing, has turned out entirely to my advantage, since it led to my becoming possessed of these most impor- tant papers. And another desirable result will be presently