The Mysteries of the Court of London by Pauline Clarendon — page 285: what you’re looking at

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

282 THE COURT OF LONDON used to visit her occasionally, and urged her to assist in extorting money from her former lover, or husband, which- ever he might have been, and who had now become king. But my aunt always refused with indignation to lend her- self to such a proceeding. This caused serious quarrels between them, and at last my aunt removed to some place where he could not find her out. A long, long time elapsed; and it was just before my aunt’s death occurred, about six- teen years ago, that she again changed her residence, having been traced out by my father. She now took a lodging at Aylesbury, in the house of a young and new-married couple named Warren.” “What! the Magsman?” ejaculated Page. “You shall hear. These Warrens were poor; but my aunt believed them to be honest. Mrs. Warren, who was then about four and twenty, was a woman of remarkable beauty and superior education; but having disgraced her- self, she was discarded by her family and was glad to marry a junior clerk in Martin’s bank at Aylesbury.”’ ‘“Martin’s bank!’ exclaimed Page. ‘“‘ Why, all these matters begin to connect themselves together like so many different links of the same chain. But go on.” “Well, one day, when my aunt Hannah Lightfoot was very ill, she had been examining the contents of a pocket- book with great attention, and had wept over them, Mrs. Warren being present at the time. It appears that a piece of paper dropped upon the floor, as my aunt was replacing the documents, and she did not notice it. Mrs. Warren picked it up stealthily, secreted it, and afterward showed it to her husband. It was a portion of a certificate or memo- randum, and bore the signature of the present king when “he was Prince of Wales. The Warrens kept it, with the determination of securing the other half and obtaining money by it from the government. But, at this crisis, my father again discovered his sister’s abode, and made his appearance at the house. His presence caused her death; and he took possession of all her little property, the pocketbook in- cluded.”’ ‘Perhaps he tried the effect of some of his poisons on the unfortunate lady?” observed the commercial traveller, looking at his wife significantly, as if he had made a very shrewd guess GoOmicbooks €o m