The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 393: what you’re looking at

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

362 REYNOLDS’ WORKS should be known as the residence of a retired tradeswoman from the West End. Sir Frederick therefore bade his de- pendent await his return at a respectable inn at a little dis- tance, and he proceeded on foot to Madame Angelique’s abode. On reaching his destination, Sir Frederick beheld no lights in any of the front rooms, and he thought that prob- ably Madame Angelique might be out; for as it was only half-past nine o’clock he could not suppose that she had thus early retired to rest. He knocked at the front door, and at that instant violent screams pealing through the house reached the amazed ear of Sir Frederick Latham. We must here interrupt the thread of our narrative for a brief space, in order to explain the reason of these cries. There was a fair being held at a little distance in the neigh- bourhood, and Madame Angelique had given permission to her two men servants (the coachman and footman) as well as to her cook to visit the scene. She therefore remained alone in the house with the pretty maid, who has already been noticed. The servants who had received permission to visit the fair had gone thither at about seven o’clock, after their mistress’s dinner, and a short while afterward the pretty maid might have been seen tripping across the garden, thence a little way along the road, to drop a couple of letters into the local post-office. The distance was not altogether a hun- dred yards; the pretty maid’s absence did not therefore last above a few minutes, but still it was sufficient to afford the opportunity for a lurking villain who was on the watch to glide very noiselessly into the house. This was none other than Barney the Burker, in his Lascar disguise. He had seen Madame Angelique’s men servants at the fair; he had recognized them by their livery, which he had observed on the day when the carriage had passed him during his altercation with the Duke of Marchmont, and be- lieving Madame Angelique to be well off, he thought he might as well profit by the comparatively unprotected state of her residence, now that he beheld the men servants at the fair. He concluded that the woman whom he saw with them was likewise a dependent of the ex-milliner’s household, and tak- ing care not to be seen by these domestics, he left them in the vicinage of the booths and stalls. Making the best of his way in the direction of the villa, he came within sight of it at the very moment the maid servant was tripping forth CORNIClIOOKS (E(0)