The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 309: what you’re looking at

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-—--o—- — Cc > am ~vw oe == al 256 THE YSTERIES OF THE COURT. sal on my arrival in Paris, and he would give me farther information. Conceive, my dear Ciara, the state of mind into which this letter threw me: and, Oh! you were not nigh to counsel me! I felt that it was wrong to leave our poor aunt to the care of a comparative stranger: but on the other hand it would have been madness or perhaps death for me to have remained at home, a prey to the most excruciating suspense |” “Poor girl!” said the elder sister, hastily wiping her eyes. “No—I was not there to succour you with my advice, although I ought to have been! Bat go on, Louisa—go on,” she repeated, with a sort of nervous impatience. “I can understand full well how it was that you yielded to the impulse of your feelings and resolved upon repairing to Paris. Under the circumstances I should have done the same: and therefore I do not blame you.” “Thank you, dear sister—tbank you for that as- surance!” exclaimed Louisa, smiling through the tears which had started forth upon her lashes as she spoke of her aunt. “ Yee—it is as you have aaid! | Driven wild with fearful misgivings—half frenzied and delirious—hurried along as it were by an overwhelming torrent of feeling, I became power- less for anything like calm deliberation. Mary Owen promised to bestow the most unwearied attention upon my aunt, and to take my place in all tender ministrations towards her. I knew that my young friend was kind-hearted, affectionate, and sitcere ; and I entertained not the slightest apprehension that ‘ our afflicted relation would experience neglect at her hands. Thus, after a few very brief preparations, my departure was taken hurriedly; and without any adventure worth relating, I arrived safely in Paris. Immediately on reaching the French capital, I re- paired to the British Consul: and when I mentioned my name, he treated me with a kindness of man- ner so fully reassuring and even paternal that I was struck with the idea that he himself must be the author of the letter which was signed by an unknown friend. Bak in this respect I was speedily unde- celyed; for, after a few observations to the purport that av excellent and kind hearted English nobleman was really the author of that letter, and was interest- ing himself in my behalf, the consul directed me to an hotel close at hanc. where I was to (inquire for the Marquis of Leveson. You may well under- stand, my dear Clara, that the moment this name struck upon my ears, it carried a vague and un- known terror into the depths of my soul: for al- though I had heard but little of this nobleman from the lips of Mary Owen, yet this little was not in bis favour.” . Here we must pause for a moment to remind our reader that when Jocelyn had introduced Mary Owen to the cottage at Canterbury, he had carefully furborne from mentioning to Louisa any. thing beyond the mere outline of the -atrocions conspiracy that was a-foot against the Princess of Wales. Fspecially did he avoid alluding to the infamous means which had been adopted to de- moralize the minds of the fair daughters of Mrs. Owen: and Mary herself, with a proper feeling of delicacy, never subsequently enlightened Louisa in that respect. Thus the reader will understand that when Louisa heard the name of the Marquis of Leveson mentioned by the British Consul, she knew nothing of the worst phases of his character, aut only that he was one of the Prince Regent's confederates in respect to the conspiracy against the Princess of Wales. These circumstanecs being duly borne in mind, it will be the more easy to comprehend the ensuing details of Louisa Stanley's narrative. “Yes—on hearing that name of Leveson,” she continued, after a brief pause, “I felt that it was indeed probable he might know something of Jocelyn and of Jocelyn’s proceeding, since his lordship was so intimately connectéd with the machinations and designs of the Prince and so well acquainted with the Misses Owen. There- fore, after thanking the British Consul for his kindness, I at once repaired to the hotel which he had named; and on inquiring for the Marquis of Leveson, I was introduced to his presence. It you have ever seen him, Clara ———” “Yes—I—I think I must have seen him,” ob- served the elder sister, with a slight appearance of confusion. “But goon. What were you about to say ?” “I was on the point of observing that his Jord- ship is an elderly,.if not an old man,” continued Louisa; “and his age, added to the paternal kind- nese with which he received me, naturally inspired me with confidence. Besides, I was too anxious to be relieved of my dreadful suspense relative to Jocelyn, to give way to much misgiving on my own account; and as he doubtless saw by my looks how torturing that suspense was, he at once entered on the painful topic alluded to in his pseudonymous letter. After a suitable preface, he proceeded with every appearance of gen- tleness and considerate caution, to unfold a long tale of charges and accusations against poor Jocelyn. Thus at his very first words I was so far relieved as to learn that the object of my affections had neither sustained personal injury nor was dead,—between which calamities my frenzied fancy had been croelly alternating. But, Oh! if I were indeed relieved from that poignant saspense and excruciating alarm, it was only to hear sufficient to prove, as I then thought, that henceforth Jocelyn was unworthy of the love which I had bestowed upon him! Nevertheless, I could not—I would not—I dared not—put implicit faith in the bare word of the Marquis of Leveson, with- out corroboration and without proof. Nor did he for a moment appear to believe that I should rest satisfied with mere statements unsupported by evidence. He assured me that his only aim was to save me from becoming the victim of an adven- turer, and that his conduct towards me aas inspired by the feelings which a father might cherish towards a daughter. In a word, my dear Clara, he spoke so kindly, so reasonably, and so conscientiously to all appearance—and then, too, I was so very, very unhappy, so lonely, and so touch in want of a friend and adviser—that I readily promised to be guided by his counsel. He bade me remain at the hotel, assigning me to the care of the landlady and her daughters, who were worthy people, and seeing that I was unhappy, did their best to console me in my affliction, To be brief, the Marquis took me Jate that same night in his carriage to the Prefecture of Police: and there, as it appeared to me, I received the fallest, the cruellest, and, Oh! the most fatal confirmation of all that his lordship had previously told me !” Louisa Stanley now related to her sister the GOnMGOOOKS | CO