The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 39: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER IV THE DRAMA OF A NIGHT — ACT THE FOURTH Ir was about half-past two o’clock in the morning when the Earl of Curzon and Colonel Malpas pushed their jaded steeds up the acclivitous steep of the main thoroughfare of Lausanne. The night, or, rather, the morning, was pitch-dark, for the moon had totally disappeared, and the sky was curtained with masses of sable drapery, as if nature had hung the empyrean arch with a funeral pall. Nor did the dimly burning oil-lamps of Lausanne do much more than render that darkness visible. Nevertheless, without setting forth the salient features of the place, they served to guide our travellers to the hotel at which it had previously been arranged that they were to take up their quarters. The porter of the establishment at once gave them admis- sion, and as alacrity always prevails in a Continental hotel when Englishmen make their appearance, their repute being that of wealthy and liberal-paying travellers, the earl and the colonel had no difficulty in obtaining all requisite com- forts even at that unseasonable hour. A groom was promptly - in readiness to take charge of the horses, and a waiter was summoned to conduct them to an apartment, where a blazing fagot on the hearth, wax lights on the mantel, and a cold repast quickly spread upon the table, soon, gave an air of luxurious comfort to a room which a few minutes before had been enwrapped in the darkness, the silence, and the chilliness of the hour. These arrangements being made with that expedition for which Continental waiters in general and Swiss ones in particular are so remarkable, the earl proceeded to give a few hasty but clearly expressed instructions. 22 ECORNIECLIOO KS (E(0) im