The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 201: what you’re looking at

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

176 REYNOLDS’ WORKS must have suffered ere she sank into her nameless grave in an obscure village churchyard in a distant county. And the twins wept painfully, too, as they thought of their unhappy sire, who, when wandering forth in his despair, and in the silence of night, had met his death from the hand of an assassin. ‘These were painful retrospections truly, and min- gling with the consciousness of rank and wealth and brilliant position, they taught the twins the world’s invariable lesson, that there is no perfect happiness upon earth, and that however high the chalice may be filled with honey, there is to be at least one drop of gall mingled with its contents. And now, too, Christian and Christina were enabled to regard as a relation that noble-minded man whom, as Mr. Redcliffe, they had known as a friend and a benefactor, and oh, how they rejoiced that his innocence had been made manifest! But here again was the gall mingling with the honey, for if on the one hand the startling revelations of this night had rendered them aware that they had a relative of whom they could be proud, at the same time they learned that they had another of whose crimes they could only think with blended distress and horror. Yes, bitterness was mingled with the sweetness of the twins’ reflections, but still there was happiness for them, — happiness for that beauti- fully handsome young man who now bore a ducal title, happiness for that maiden of transcending loveliness whose name a patrician dignity graced. And at one time this young man had served in a humble capacity the very kinsman who bore that usurped title, the very kinsman who enjoyed the wealth that was now to be all Christian’s own. But, ah! if there were one reason more than another for which our young hero rejoiced in the wondrous change that had taken place in his circumstances, it was that he could place the coronet of a duchess upon the brow of that charm- ing Isabella who had loved so faithfully, so devotedly, so unselfishly. The twins embraced each other over and over again when they were left alone together by Queen Indora; they mingled their tears as they spoke of their perished parents, and they smiled upon each other in mutual congratulations for the bounties which all in a moment seemed to be showering upon their heads. Then they exchanged solemn looks, and they shuddered simultaneously, and Christian drew his sister CORNIELYOOLKKS (E(©)