The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 306: what you’re looking at

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

276 THE COURT OF LONDON listened with the deepest attention, although she did affect to start up from a nap and rub her eyes drowsily when the earl opened the door to tell her that the attorney had taken his departure. Thus was it that Caroline had already obtained an insight into the particulars of the lawsuit; and now, after the dis- course which she had overheard between the Magsman, the Big Beggarman, and Carrotty Poll, she had no difficulty in arriving at the same conclusions to which indeed those individuals also came, namely, that the Earl of Montgomery and Fernanda were the employers of the two men in their country excursion, that Lord Raymond was the victim at the bridge, and that the proceedings in the vault and in the vestry of the church bore reference to the pending Chancery suit. All these details were of importance to Caroline, not only to aid in her wreaking the fullest measure of vengeance upon Fernanda, but likewise to convince the world that the young lady was capable of the blackest turpitude which could possibly be imputed to her. Butif her eavesdropping behind the pillar had made her acquainted on the one hand with particulars thus useful and important to her purposes, it had nevertheless on the other hand brought to her knowledge a fact which filled her heart with rage. This was the strat- agem which had been adopted, through the agency of Alfred, to recover the stolen deeds. from Mr. Rigden, and restore them to Lord Florimel, and when Caroline thus found that the mistrust with which that sickly-looking lad had inspired her at the lawyer’s office was fully warranted, she bit her lip with rage :nd cursed the want of caution which on Rig- den’s part had thus enabled Florimel to triumph in the long run. After walking to and fro in the hall for a few minutes to collect her ideas and compose her excited feelings as well as she was able, Caroline Walters retired to her cell, where she penned the following note to Mr. Rigden: ‘“The boy Alfred who stole the papers was employed by a woman belonging to an infamous gang, some of whom are at this moment in Newgate. The woman’s name is Price, and she keeps a low public-house in Horslydown. Perhaps you can find some means of avenging yourself on the wretches for the loss of the papers? ” ~ . CONNIE IOOKS