The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 235: what you’re looking at

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

208 REYNOLDS’ WORKS the recollection of the miscreant’s conduct to me ere now.” “He sought me in the drawing-room,” responded Ethel, “some little while after you had left me, he made insolent advances. I felt that 1 was in his power; he threatened, and, oh, Adolphus, though I knew myself to be innocent, yet I dreaded lest if that man were to tell his tale you would go to the scaffold — ”’ “By Heaven, Ethel!” interrupted the earl, with im- passioned vehemence, “ it was the same that I said to myself when I submitted to the extortionate demand he made upon me. For I dreaded lest you, Ethel, should be dragged ignominiously before a tribunal, and from a tribunal to the scaffold.” The young nobleman and the countess now related to each other everything that had respectively taken place with themselves in reference to Makepeace, and hence it appeared that whereas on the one hand Adolphus had taken time for the payment of the money, so on the other hand had Ethel obtained a reprieve — though a brief one — in respect to the surrender of herself to the embraces of Make- peace. “The circumstances which have this night transpired,’ said Adolphus, “are not merely accidental, — they have been ordained by Heaven to place us on the right track for the discovery and punishment of the murderer. For our own guilt, Ethel, toward that deceased old man, we have indeed been chastised; the horrible state of suspicion in which we have existed since his death has proved a punish- ment ample enough, let us hope, to satisfy Heaven’s sternest sense of justice. And now let us separate. Retire you to your chamber. Perhaps you may repose more peaceably for the rest of this night than you have hitherto done, and I shall retire to rest in fullest confidence that Heaven will not leave unfinished the work which it has just commenced.” ‘What course do you purpose to adopt?” asked Ethel. ‘For remember, Adolphus, that as yet there is but slight evidence to satisfy the world of this man’s guilt, though with ourselves it is placed beyond the possibility of doubt.”’ “I can give you no decisive answer for the present,” responded the young earl. “It is a subject which must be deliberated upon, and which likewise depends upon circum- ECORNICLIIOOKS (E(0)