The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 325: what you’re looking at

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

294 REYNOLDS’ WORKS finding himself in the dark, not immediately recollecting where he was, and hearing those voices, he thought he must be in a dream; and the terror which he felt, as well as the numbing cold, completely paralzyed him. When his con- sciousness became complete, he learned from the duke’s words that it was long past midnight, and that the household had retired to rest. The thought instantaneously struck him that if he were found there, sitting up at such an hour, he should be chided, perhaps dismissed from the situation which he had only entered in the morning. This idea appalled him, he was bewildered how to act, and while in this terrible state of uncertainty, not daring to move, scarcely to breathe, the conversation progressed rapidly between the duke and Mr. Stanhope. As the reader has seen, it soon became of a nature which the duke would not for the world have had anybody overhear, and thus Chris- tian saw that his position was becoming every instant more and more difficult. When the discourse had got to a certain extent, he dared not suddenly raise his voice and proclaim that there was a listener present. The natural question would be, wherefore he had remained to listen at all? So he continued motionless and silent, in the hope that the duke and his companion would speedily pass away from the library. But as the discourse progressed, it assumed a complexion so astounding, so startling indeed, if Christian had dared to start at all, it grew so engrossing in its terrible interest, that, forgetting every other circumstance, he drank in the whole with his amazed sense of hearing. Thus did he tarry there until the end, and even after the double doors had closed behind the duke and Mr. Stanhope, it was a long time ere Christian could venture to draw a breath freely. Good heavens, what a tale had he heard! What a dia- bolical conspiracy had become revealed to his knowledge! In what a fearful light was the character of his employer suddenly presented to his comprehension! But was it not natural that the youth should say to himself, “ It is Provi- dence that placed me here on this occasion, to learn the deeply plotted scheme of villainy, and to become the divine instrument in frustrating it.”’ His first impulse was now to rush to the dining-room, proclaim to the two conspirators that their horrible machi- nations had come to his knowledge, rush forth in disgust from ECORNICLIOO KS (E()