The Mysteries of London; or, Revelations of the British Metropolis — page 123: what you’re looking at

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

OF LONDON, 121 D—n it ! said the policeman tn stupified amaze- i ment, f The gentleman drew back a pace or two, ra- ‘pidly buttoned up his elegant dress coat, and placed his arms in a boxing attitude. The police- |Man seemed at first inclined to meet the attack, | but a carriage drawing up just at the moment,. ~ | the lamps of which accidentally showed him his | adversary’s face, he ran off as if the devil had been at his heels. Ha! exclaimed Lantures-Luces; °tis our dear Brian de Lancaster, Ah! gentlemen, did you ever see anything more funny ? Did you see how the policeman took to his heels? My dear friend, © I wish I could box as well as you, to punish a rascal who -has‘just now flogged my horses at the risk of destroying our idol here, Briotta la Diva. _ Brian was aman of about thirty five years of “age, thin, but well formed, rather above the mid- dling stature; his waist was small, his shoulders broad, and perhaps rather too high, His features were “admirably moulded, and seemed to have been sculptured bya chisel ; for they had that cold and composed expression of all English faces — the high nobility; but in the serious lookof “his dark-blue eye, there was an immeasurable boldness, almost approaching effrontery, and an “expression of cold raillery not common in an = lishman. His forehead was high and broad, | it gave an additional effect to his noble andes om | hare countenance, which was, somewhat softened 5S, by his beautiful light hair which was soft and pouring. “tise ey ~~ many, as de Lancaster would aa COMME NNO <S.COLN