The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 53: what you’re looking at

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

36 THE COURT OF LONDON dozen men whose swords rattled in their sheaths as they sprang toward her. ‘“ Why, it 1s a woman! ”’ ejaculated another of the civic guard, for police officers these individuals assuredly were. ‘Tt must be a mistake.”’ ‘Well, but did you not hear the splash? ”’ exclaimed he who had first spoken, and who was the sergeant of the band. “At all events, let the young person give an account of herself, who she is, where she comes from, what she is doing here, and what made that noise a minute ago in the water.”’ ‘“ Officers,’ said Emma, driven by very desperation to the exercise of a fortitude the suddenness as well as the strength of which even surprised herself, ‘‘ I am here with no evil intention. It was a whim, a fantasy, a caprice on my part,’ she continued, speaking in excellent French, “ to ramble on the border of the lake at this hour; and as for the plashing sound which you heard, it was caused by a stone which in a listless mood I picked up and flung into the water.”’ “°Tis a lady, by the tone of her voice and the language she uses,’’ said one of the officers. “The greater the reason, then,’ observed the sergeant, ‘“‘ that she should give a better account of herself. Ladies — that is to say, real ladies — don’t come down here to walk at this time of night, or, rather, at such an hour in the morn- ing. Itis not at all probable, and though perhaps she is not one of those we have been waiting for, and perhaps has no connection with them, we must nevertheless take her before the night-commissary.”’ ‘“ What!” almost shrieked forth Emma, now smitten with the cruellest, the wildest, the most agonizing terror, “ take me before a magistrate? ”’ “Yes, most assuredly,’ rejoined the sergeant of police. “ What alternative have we? Come, my men, away with her! ”’ Emma saw in a moment that remonstrance with the ser- geant and his functionaries would be all in vain, and indeed would only be calculated to enhance their suspicions against her, but she felt confident that from the courtesy of the Genevese magistrates she had everything favourable to expect. Once more recalling to her aid and hugging, as 1t were, the fortitude wherewith she had previously armed 1) ECORNICLIOOKS (E(0)