The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 149: what you’re looking at

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

128 THE COURT OF LONDON offering a reward for the recovery of the child. Lady Flori- mel was, aS you may suppose, profoundly grieved for my sake on hearing such terrible intelligence from Doctor Thurston, but she nevertheless deemed it her duty to report the whole truth to me. What my feelings have since been I shall not attempt to describe. Suffice it to say that while picturing the most horrible destinies for the unhappy progeny of my youthful weakness, I have looked upon myself as the most unnatural of mothers. But in the meantime, — since that interview between Lady Florimel and Doctor Thurston, — the head officer of Bow Street has been employed by the physician to discover, if possible, some trace of the lost one.”’ “Ah! Lawrence Sampson,’ ejaculated the prince. ‘‘ He is a clever fellow. But I hope that Thurston did not entrust him with your secret? ”’ ‘““No,” said the princess. ‘‘ Doctor Thurston represented that it was his own child who had been lost. And this Mr. Sampson has succeeded not only in discovering that the lost one is alive, but also where he is and the manner he has been brought up.” Here the Princess Sophia burst into a flood of tears, and her voice was choked with the convulsive sobs that rent her bosom. ‘Where is the boy? ”’ inquired the prince, ‘‘ and in what sphere of life has he been trained? I am afraid that you have nothing very satisfactory to impart on this point.”’ ‘“ Good heavens! what a dreadful idea is it for a mother to contemplate! ’’ exclaimed the princess, wringing her hands in bitterest anguish; but, suddenly regaining the fortitude of despair, she dashed the tear from her eyes, and turning her looks steadfastly upon her brother, said, in a deep and solemn tone, ‘‘ My son, the offspring of my early crime, has been trained amongst the vilest of the vile, dragged through all the mire, feculence, and corruption of demoralization, inured to depravity, steeped to the very crown of his head in all moral abominations, and now—O God! that a mother’s tongue should have to proclaim so hideous a fact! — and now, I say, he is in the service of a man who occupies the basest, the most loathed, scorned, and abhorred position that is to be found at the bottom of the social scale.’ “To whom do you allude? ’’ demanded the prince, who, in spite of his intense selfishness and his cold-blooded in- CORNICE OO ss (E(0)