The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 399: what you’re looking at

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

364 REYNOLDS’ WORKS of her as a perfect miracle in the Terpsichorean sphere. It may perhaps be as well to observe that out of the dozen principal critiques the ballet-master himself wrote seven, all in different strains of eulogy, and the remaining five were penned by the reviewers immediately after the champagne- supper which the director of the opera gave to the gentlemen of the press in the greenroom. But all this apart, Atalanta’s triumph was really immense. She appeared as a sylph amongst a mass of clouds; she had wings at her back, flowers in her hair, and whatsoever beauties of form she possessed were developed by the gauzy drapery. The en- thusiasm her appearance excited no doubt inspired her to put forth all her powers, and subsequent critiques — which were not penned by the friendly ballet-master, and not written under the influence of the director’s champagne — pro- nounced her style of dancing to be a perfect combination of all the elegancies and graces pertaining to the art.” — “The ravishing creature,’’ ejaculated Softly. ‘ But I fancy I see in this lovely embodiment of graces and elegan- cles — ”’ : ‘Pray anticipate nothing,” interjected Armantine, again tapping her foolish young lover’s cheek in a playful manner. “You may easily suppose that she had a great many over- tures, and was exposed to many temptations, some of which, when rejected, changed into persecution. And now I come to that part which constitutes my motive for telling you this tale. Amongst the noblemen and gentlemen — foreign as well as French — who obtained admittance behind the scenes and were allowed the entrée of the greenroom was a fierce military-looking Englishman, some forty years of age, who made the most brilliant overtures to Mademoiselle Atalanta, but, along with the rest, he experienced a decisive refusal. He became the most persevering of her persecutors. He had her carried off to a lonely house on the outskirts of Paris, but thence she escaped. A second time was she carried off, and on this occasion to a house of infamy, where the unprincipled Englishman vowed that if she did not : submit by fair means, violence should be used, and all Paris should know next day that Atalanta, the. supposed paragon of virtue, had passed the night there. She, however, escaped a second time; the police were informed of the outrage, and the Englishman was ordered to leave Paris. His infatuation EORNIELIOO KS, (EC)