The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 76: what you’re looking at

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

THE JOURNEY | 59 whisper that those dashing horsemen and the occupants of the phaeton were the friends whose presence he had been so eagerly expecting upon the road. Scarcely had he come to this conviction when the chaise entered the town of St. Germain, and there the horses were changed. The halt only occupied two or three minutes, and the vehicle proceeded on at a rapid rate. Half an hour elapsed, St. Germain was far behind, and the road now lay through a wood stretching far as the eye could reach on either side till lost in the gloom of distance. The moon still shone in unclouded splendour, shadowing forth the sombre appearance of the landscape, for not a human habitation was now to be seen. A presentiment sprang up in Jocelyn’s mind that ere the wood was cleared something would be attempted by his friends; and as he leaned back in the seat, the two officers sitting opposite to him, he endeavoured through the obscurity to discover with straining looks the exact position in which the principal police-agent’s pistols were secured at his waist, for our young hero was resolved, if any attack were made, to second as resolutely as he could inside the endeavours of his friends outside. Rapidly along the level road, which ran straight as an arrow through the wood, proceeded the equipage. By the shadow which it threw upon the ground, in the powerful moonlight, Jocelyn could perceive that there were no guards or gendarmes seated outside the chaise. Thetwo agents who occupied the interior along with him were therefore the only persons to contend against, for the postilions were sure not to be armed. Perceiving, therefore, that he was so slightly guarded, he felt assured that the old nurse had not betrayed to the prefect the proceedings of his friends, and that there- fore such an eventuality as an attempt at rescue had never been dreamed of by the authorities. Scarcely had Jocelyn revolved all these calculations in his own mind, when from the two branches of a cross-road a sudden attack was made upon the equipage. From the right hand and the left, simultaneously and with matchless energy, was the onslaught made by five determined persons. The postilions were instantaneously knocked from their horses; a foot was then placed on either breast and a pistol pointed at either head, accompanied with stern injunctions to remain quiet, ‘‘ or their brains would be blown out.” CORNICLOO© SS (C(O)