The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 121: what you’re looking at

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

104 THE MYSTERIES. VL L—KKeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeorereeeeereooorrrooe SSSR “ Well—I will do 80 now, my charmer,” returned | or four thousand pounds from Sir John—can’t you, Meagles; “and the narrative will afford you a little |} my beauty { farther insight with respect to the character of our| “Leave me to manage that, Tim,” replied the friend George. It will moreover prove that we are| Amazon. “ And now finish your story about Mrs. fully justified in obtaining possession of papers for | Warren.” the purpose of overawing him, inasmuch as he has{| ‘‘Oh! I had completely Jost sight of that,” ex- not hesitated to adopt the same course with a view to | claimed Meagles. “Well—I was saying that the coerce his own father.” Prince made proposals to Mrs. Warren, and that she “'What! to menace and threaten the King?” ex- | acquainted him with the object of her journey to claimed Letitia, in astonishment. London. He induced her to give up the fragment “Nothing more nor less,” responded Meagles, | of the certificate to him; and he provided splendidly coolly. “Listen. It was a little more than fifteen | for her: but I never could learn from him what be- years ago, that the Prince—then only eighteen—was | came of her, nor how long their connexipn lasted. one evening walking by himself down Whitehall, | All I know is that she certainly did not go back to when he espied by the lamp-light a beautiful young { her husband; and perhaps she was very glad to be woman who appeared to be surveying the buildings | separated from a fellow who, to judge by his present in that neighbourhood as if she were looking for some | appearance and manners, was likely enough to have particular house or Government Office. He ac- | been coarse and brutal fifteen or sixteen years ago.” costed her, and soon got into conversation with the “He was never a polished diamond,” remarked charming stranger. She told him thatshe had come | Lady Letitia. “But poor Rann made him useful from Aylesbury on important business, and was | during the few months that their acquaintance anxious to obtain an interview with the Home Secre- | lasted; and afterwards I totally lost sight of the tary as soon as possible. The Prince assured her | fellow until I met him last July.” that it was too late to procure an audience of that | “To return to what we were talking about,” re- functionary ; and she finally agreed to accompany | sumed Meagles, “I must inform you ‘hat the Prince him whitherscever he chose to take ner. I need | had the most selfish motives in getting possession ot scarcely tell you that they passed the night together; | the fragment of the certificate signed by his father, and so pleased was the stripling George with his new | instead of letting the Home Secretary buy it up acquaintance that he was by no means desirous for | For George the Third had already experienced good the amour to terminate there. He accordingly made | reason to complain of his eldest son’s extravagances; her certain .proposals—offering to maintain her as | and the Prince thought that it would be as well to his mistress, and revealing who he was. The young | hold in his hand the means of coercing his father at woman was overjoyed at having captivated the / pleasure. Accordingly, more than once has he Prince; and, in the fullness of her delight, she told | threatened His Majesty to enclose the paper to the him the object of her journey to London. In fact, | Queen, unless his demands were satisfied; and as this was none other than Mrs. Warren, the wife of the | the King stands in awful dread of his royal wife, fellow who is now known as the Mageman.” the prudish and snuff-taking Charlotte, this menace “I remember well that when I first knew Warren | has usually had the desired effect. But the next fourteen or fifteen years since,” said Lady Letitia, | time that the Prince contemplates using the mys- “he told me and Rann how he had come up to Lon- | terious fragment, he will search for it in vain,” added don to look for his wife; and he also acquainted us| Meagles, with a laugh of satisfaction. “In fact, I at the same time with the object of her journey. | have succeeded in getting the King—the Prince— Therefore, when I met Warren again six or seven | and Mrs. Fitzherbert completely into my power.” months ago, one of the first questions I putto him| “ Mra. Fitzherbert!” exclaimed Lady Lettia. “I was whether he had ever succeeded in finding his | do not see how she is precisely in your power, Tim. wife; and, after replying in the negative, he observed | It is true that you have ascertained the real nature it was vexatious that the one half of the certificate | of her connexion with the Prince: but perhaps she had disappeared with her, because accident had | would thank you for proclaiming it, rather than feel thrown him in the way of the late Hannah Lightfoot’s | herself aggrieved.” brother, in whose possession the other half existed.| “Ah! this is another secret of mine, you harum- I subsequently mentioned this fact to you, Tim—if| scarum good-for-nothing,” said Meagles, with a sly vou remember: and then you told me for the first | look. “ But I do not intend to make any mystery time that you had seen in the hands of the Prince the | of it towards you, Letitia,” be added almost imme- fragment which Mrs. Warren had originally brought | diately,—" now that we have determined to pull with her to London.” together in the same boat. The fact is that the “T recollect,” said Meagles: “and it was fortunate | influx of these foreign refugees has proved of some that the Magsman had told you where he might be | service ; for on the one hand it has thrown upon our found in case his services were ever needed.” shores a Marquis of Saint Croix to lend a good “Not particularly fortunate cither,” returned the | round sum to the Prince of Wales—and on the other Amazon : “ for when you and I visited old Lightfoot, | hand it has sent amongst us a Marquis of Bellois to according to a previous arrangement with Warren, | give certain curious information to Mr. Timothy the crabbed old fellow would not so much as show us | Meagies.” his half of the document—much less part with iton| “What do you meant” inquired the Amason, any consideration.” animated with the most lively curiosity. “He fancied he should get more by treating with| “I mean that eight years ago Mrs. Fitzherbert the principal,” observed Meagles. “But now that | visited France,” replied Meagles; “and that at we have resolved to renew the negotiations, and on | Plombiers she became acquainted with a nobleman our own account too, we will be more liberal in our | of handsome appearance and elegant manners: I offers than the means of the Prince pe rmitted us to| mean also that she fell deeply in love with him, be six or seven months ago. You can obtain three; and that she accompanied him to Paris, where in Eee COMGDOOKSHGEOh