The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 31: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER II THE DISINTERMENT Ir was between seven and eight o’clock on that same morning, when a hackney-coach drove up to the gate of the villa in the neighbourhood of Blackheath. It was still untenanted, never having been let since occupied by the Dysarts, but Mr. Sampson, who rode upon the box with the coachman, had obtained the key from the neighbouring house-agent who had the letting of it, under pretence of showing it to some friends in want of a residence in that quarter. The house-agent, happening to be a friend of Sampson’s, was easily deterred by some excuse from either accompanying him and his party or sending anybody to show them over the premises. When the hackney-coach stopped at the gate, Larry Sampson alighted from the box, while Sir Valentine Malvern and two medical gentlemen descended from the interior. The young baronet then assisted Lady Ernestina Dysart to alight, and when Sampson had ordered the hackney-coach to return in three or four hours, the party entered the grounds belonging to the villa. On repairing to the back garden, they found two men with pickaxes, spades, and the necessary implements for opening the grave, these men having been sent over by Sampson, with instructions to climb the wall and wait in the grounds for the arrival of himself and companions. Sir Valentine Malvern and Lady Ernestina walked first, the medical men and Sampson following at a short distance. Malvern, with the chivalrous feeling of a gentleman toward a lady placed in most painful circumstances, offered Er- nestina his arm, but she, with becoming taste, declined the courtesy. She felt how embarrassing it would be for 13 (C(O) nn) (C 6)(0)©) So!