The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 219: what you’re looking at

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

194 REYNOLDS’ WORKS the governor-general, and gave him such explanations that not only astonished him, but likewise proved to be of the highest importance, so that he was enabled to send off efficient instructions to the naval commanders in the Chinese seas, as well as to the British political agents in various quarters. My introduction to the governor-general was thus most favourable to my views, and when I informed him that I had been attached to the British Embassy at Washington, he asked me no more questions. It never struck him that I might have borne another name, and he at once offered me employment in the civil service of India. This I accepted, and in a very few days set off on a special mission to the Nizam. ‘At that sovereign’s court I remained for upwards of a year, deeply engaged in diplomatic negotiations. No English newspaper ever reached me, and I thus continued in total ignorance of the events which so intimately regarded my character and good name in my native land. Having succeeded in all the objects for which I had been accredited to the Nizam’s court, I was directed by a special courier bearing despatches from the governor-general to repair on a similar mission to the King of Inderabad. From various causes the small retinue with which I travelled dwindled away, and I arrived alone at the chief city of Inderabad. There I found myself a prisoner. ‘Years elapsed; no inquiry was made after me, for the King of Inderabad, in order to accomplish his own aims, caused the rumour to be spread that I was no more. At length, in the year 1845, an English traveller was assassi- nated, by miscreants of the Thuggee caste, in a forest at no great distance from the city of Inderabad. Amongst his effects an English newspaper was discovered. Though sixteen years had then elapsed since the events at Oaklands, there was nevertheless a paragraph in that journal which alluded thereto. It was one of those paragraphs which frequently refer to any memorable occurrences connected with eminent families, and then, for the first time, I learned that my uncle had been murdered, that I was branded as his assassin, that neither myself nor the Duchess Eliza had ever since been heard of, and it was supposed that we as a guilty pair had fled together to some remote part of the world, to elude the consequences of our crimes. I will not EOmicsooks (E(©)