The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 283: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XX A REVELATION THE incident of the man-trap remained enveloped in 3 considerable degree of mystery with the generality of the earl’s household. His lordship said, as if in a cursory manner, that he supposed one of the gardeners must have set it under the impression that there were nocturnal intruders upon the grounds, and he forbade any inquiries to be insti- tuted. Makepeace of course took very good care not to con- fess how far he had been instrumental in producing the ignoble catastrophe, nor did he think fit to mention the cir- cumstance even to Lord Osmond. The under-gardener likewise maintained the secret, in pursuance of the instruc- tions he had received from the earl, but the man could not for the life of him conceive how the trap had become moved from its original position. When, at the expiration of a day or two, the nobleman was enabled to leave his room again, he took an opportunity of questioning the under-gardener, and though the fellow swore lustily he had planted the trap against the private door, the earl could not help thinking the fellow had got drunk and had placed it amongst the shrubs. However, he was content to leave the matter as it stood, for he had no inclination to make a disturbance relative to an incident that was so painfully humiliating for himself. Yet bitter was his lordship’s vexation that Christian Ashton should have escaped him, for it was his intention, if the youth had been caught in the trap, to summon the whole household to witness him in that position. The tables had however been turned; it was the earl himself who was caught, — the earl himself likewise whom that household, with but three or four ex- ceptions, had poured forth to see. 263 CORNICLOO (C©)