The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 277: what you’re looking at

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

248 THE COURT OF LONDON Jocelyn, ‘‘ if I considered it to be my first duty to convince that dear girl of my safety ere I adopted some new project on behalf of the Princess Caroline? But I have only been in England three days; for within a few hours after my rescue in the manner I have described to your Royal Highness, } had to separate from my unknown friends, assume a dis- guise, and proceed on foot all the way to Havre, because I had no passport. At Havre I waited till I could obtain a passage for Southampton, and thence I travelled day and night to Canterbury, without passing through London on my way thither. But 1 am detaining your Royal Highness with my own private concerns, while I ought to be conversing only on the one grand subject of our interview. Had your letter not reached me at Canterbury, I should have started off again in a few days for the Continent, taking care, how- ever, to avoid France. My idea was to pass through Belgium, and proceed along the Rhine.’’ “ And why not still adopt that plan? ”’ asked the princess. ‘‘ T will furnish you with letters to my injured sister-in-law.’’ ‘“‘ An idea struck me as I journeyed up to London yesterday on receipt of your Royal Highness’s letter, and that is,” continued Jocelyn, “‘if I could only procure an interview with the prince regent, I would appeal to him on behalf of his persecuted wite.”’ ‘“ But he would not hear you,’’ exclaimed the princess. ‘Oh, I would force him to hear me,’ replied Loftus, his cheeks flushing with the generous enthusiasm that inspired his heart. ‘‘ I feel that I should become so eloquent while pleading such a holy cause that I am almost inclined to hope I should be enabled to produce some little impression upon the mind of his Royal Highness. At all events, if I failed, I should be cheered by the consciousness of having done my duty, and that very failure would nerve me with a determina- tion all the more deeply fixed to defend the Princess Caroline against her enemies.” As Jocelyn Loftus was thus speaking, the eyes of the princess wandered from his countenance to the mantelpiece in the vacant abstraction of her thoughts, and her glance encountered the admission tickets which her brother had given her on the previous day and which were now stuck in a card-rack by the side of the mirror. ‘““T have it,” she suddenly exclaimed, ‘‘ There will be Gomichboo SS (E(@)