The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 242: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XVIII THE MURDERER A LITTLE before ten on this same night of which we are writing, Adolphus gave orders for his travelling-carriage to be in readiness at nine o’clock in the morning, and at the same time he intimated that the domestics might retire to bed at their usual hour, no one being needed to sit up for himself, the countess, or Mr. Slater, as they had business to transact which would possibly keep them in the library far into the night. | By eleven o’clock the mansion was silent; the lights were extinguished in all the chambers of the domestics, who had retired about half an hour previously. Adolphus now issued from the library, carrying a light in his hand, and followed by Mr. Slater. They ascended the private staircase, and reached the passage whence opened the suite of apartments occupied by the late earl. Traversing the dressing-room, they passed into the bedchamber, and there Adolphus, having deposited the light upon the toilet-table, left the solicitor by himself. The young earl then rejoined the Countess of Lascelles in the library. We may as well observe that Mr. Slater was a man of about forty years of age, intelligent and strong-minded, and by no means prone to superstitious fears. He had therefore unhesitatingly volunteered to become the temporary occupant of the chamber where the horrible murder was committed, in the hope that the proceeding might have a particular issue. The attorney, when left to himself, merely threw off his coat and waistcoat, and lay down beneath the coverlid. As the reader may very well suppose, he had no inclination for sleep, inasmuch as he had a special task to perform. He 216 EGOMINGIOOKS (CO)