Her Royal Lover: A Novel — page 154: what you’re looking at

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

146 HER ROYAL LOVER. tress, endeavoring to rejoin her, to prevent, thus, an irreparable disaster. Although half-fainting from the loss of blood, which was flowing from her face, the princess was clinging instinctively to the pommel of her saddle. She had reached thus, without hindrance, a long straight road leading directly to the city; unfortu- nately, at this early hour, this part of the forest was completely deserted. It was only at the entrance of the residence that some courageous pedestrians, flinging themselves at the horse’s head, at last suc- ceeded in stopping her. Najeska Ivanowna, her face smeared with red stains, was unconscious when they lifted her from her horse. Carried into a pharmacy, not far distant, she received there the first cares indispensable to her condition. At the sight of the blood with which she was covered, they believed her much more dangerously injured than she really was. One of the blows had - fallen above her eye; the other on the temple; and a third, back of her ear. This last had been go vio- lently struck, that the whip, rebounding on her shoulder, had upon its passage cut the little narrow collar of her habit. Under the ablutions of ice-water, which they first applied, the young woman recovered consciousness; her eyes were scarcely opened when the poor groom arrived, breathless and trembling. Gomicbooks, co m