The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 33: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER II THE DUKE OF MARCHMONT A YEAR had passed away, — it was now the summer of 1827, — when the English newspapers gave some meagre and scantily outlined account of a deplorable catastrophe which had taken place on an American river. A pleasure- vessel, having a numerous party on board, amongst whom were several gentlemen attached to the English embassy in the United States, had been upset in a sudden squall, and every soul had perished. The paragraph gave the names of some of the principal personages who had thus met their death, and amongst those names was that of Bertram Vivian. Captain Lacey was reading an Oxford paper one morning after breakfast when this paragraph met his eyes, and the sudden ejaculation which burst from his lips caused Eliza to question him with trembling anxiety as to the source of his emotions. He dared not conceal the fact from her, but ere he showed her the paragraph itself, he gradually broke the fatal truth. Even before he had finished, poor Kliza comprehended it all. Not a tear escaped her eyes, no word fell from her lips, but pale as marble, she sat the image of dull, deep, blank despair. Her father caught her in his arms; then the flood-gates of her ineffable affliction were opened, and she wept long, bitterly, agonizingly. Oh, for the hopes which that heart had cherished, to be thus blighted allina moment! Oh, for the fabric of expectant bliss which her faithful and trusting soul had built up, to be thus shat- tered in an instant! It was too cruel. Captain Lacey, with the tears running down his wrinkled cheeks, besought her to calm her sorrow for his sake, but the entreaty was a long time vain. Hours passed ere Eliza could even bring herself to think 14 Gomichbooks (E(0)