The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 211: what you’re looking at

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

194 REYNOLDS’ WORKS dance upon nothing at Tuck-up Fair, I will be mum as a mouse about your ladyship.”’ Lady Saxondale made no observation in reply to this assurance, which was given in terms so horribly ludicrous and revoltingly jocular, but she proceeded at once to afford the man egress from the castle. He disappeared from her view in the darkness of the night, and she now breathed freely as she retraced her way to her own apartment. At an early hour in the morning, long before it was light, a groom, mounted on horseback, set off for Gainsborough; and by about nine o’clock he returned, accompanied by a post-chaise containing four constables. They came well armed and provided with handcuffs, for the groom had failed not to tell them what a desperate character was to be dealt with. The head constable had remained all night at his post in the passage where the sofa was placed against the chapel door. He had not slept a wink; and if every now and then he felt a sensdtion of drowsiness coming over him, he had risen to pace to and fro and shake it off. He had scarcely touched the wine which was furnished him, and he had chiefly employed the long, weary hours in thinking of the manner in which he might best lay out the reward he was to obtain for handing over the formidable and ferocious murderer to the authorities in London. He did not choose to run the slightest risk of losing him by opening the chapel door until the arrival of his subordinates from Gainsborough. When they came, they were at once conducted to the pas- sage where their principal awaited them, and three or four of the men servants of the household accompanied them, not merely from motives of curiosity to have another glimpse of the terrible miscreant, but lkewise as an additional guarantee against any possible demonstration of violence on his part. The sofa was drawn away, the door was opened, the head constable, with loaded pistols in his hands, advanced into the chapel, but Chiffin was not on the seat where he had been deposited. This circumstance excited no suspicion; bound though he were, he might have managed to drag himself away to some other spot. Into the cloister did the head constable and his followers accordingly pass, but no Chiffin was to be seen. They looked behind the monuments; CONNIE NO KS (E(0)