The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 276: what you’re looking at

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

THE AUDIENCE AND THE LETTER 259 foot she trembled with a mortal terror, as if a thunderbolt had fallen at her feet. ‘“ Give me that letter and begone,”’ exclaimed the princess, sternly addressing herself to Lady Prescott, whose conduct she naturally regarded as a deliberate and wanton insolence toward Miss Owen. Lady Prescott accordingly handed the letter to the prin- cess and then hurried away, overwhelmed with confusion, and consoled only by the reflection that after having dared : so much, and likewise endured so much, she had succeeded in placing Jocelyn’s despatch in the hands of her Royal Highness. The page, who was waiting at a distance, hastened to conduct her out of the garden, but ere she quitted the erounds she threw a hasty look back, and beheld the princess with the letter open in her hands. ‘“ She is reading it, she is reading it! ’’ said Lady Prescott to herself, and in the joy now experienced on account of the success of her mission she forgot for the moment the in- dignity, the humiliation, and the exposure through which she had just passed. But let us return to the royal group. The moment the Princess Caroline had taken the letter in the manner already described from Lady Prescott, she tore it open, and the envelope she in her haste let fall upon the ground. Agatha stooped, picked it up, and appeared to fold it in an unpre- meditated, unwitting manner, while the princess opened the letter which the envelope had contained. It was the missive from the Princess Sophia, and ran as follows: “St. JAMES’S Pauacn, LONDON. ‘“ December, 1814. “My DEAREST CAROLINE: — I beg and entreat of you to see the bearer of this, who will explain to you what his object is in approaching you, what he has already suffered in the endeavour to seek you, and how it is that he is com- pelled to adopt extraordinary means to obtain access to your presence. He bears the name of Jocelyn Loftus, but that is not his real one. This he will reveal to you, together with the reasons which have induced him to adopt the assumed one. On no account be dissuaded from seeing him. That attempts will be made so to dissuade you, I am well aware beforehand, but I entreat you, for your own sake, for CORNICLOO cS (C(O) mM