The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT OF LONDON CHAPTER I THE DRAMA OF A NIGHT — ACT THE FIRST Ir was about ten o’clock at night, and the sky was covered with dark clouds which were borne swiftly along upon the wings of a strong wind. Every now and then the moon- beams shone forth for a few moments from amidst those sombre and variable curtains which nature had stretched over the empyrean arch, but during the intervals, when the planet of the night was veiled behind those clouds, a total darkness prevailed in Geneva and the surrounding country. Though in the middle of April, it was a tempestuous night, and the immense lake was lashed by the wind into rolling billows, so that the sound of its murmurings, moan- ings, and plashings might be heard to a considerable distance. Altogether it was such a night that no person would care to be abroad unless on urgent business or in pursuit of those evil avocations which were congenial with the hour and the darkness, and yet a female form was proceeding rapidly along that narrow road which ran through the fields at the back of the villa. Closely enveloped in her capacious mantle, and with a thick veil drawn over her countenance, Mrs. Ranger it was - whom we find thus daring the inclemency of the night. (Juick was her pace as she proceeded in the direction of the city, on gaining the streets of which she at once took the 1 CORNICLOOL <S (C(O) am