The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 365: what you’re looking at

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

THE INTRIGUING MOTHER 339 ‘¢ And those proofs? ”’ ejaculated the prince. ‘‘ Listen, and I will tell you everything.” Mrs. Arbuthnot then proceeded to sketch in rapid outline all that she had heard some short time back from Mrs. Bredal- bane, and his Royal Highness, to do him justice, was horrified at the complexion which the frightful story now wore, and which involved such tremendous charges, not only against his brother, the Duke of Cumberland, but likewise his sister, the Princess Augusta. He rose from the sofa and began pacing the room in an agitated manner, giving frequent vent to ejaculations which showed how profoundly he felt the terrible things that had been revealed to him. That he himself might have had some distant suspicion of the possibility of his brother’s guilt, relative to the death of Sellis, was probable, was even likely, but if so, he must ever have striven to put it away from his thoughts, as a man endeavours to shake off the influence of a hideous dream. But most assuredly the prince had never suspected that his sister Augusta had been so deeply criminal as he was now forced to believe her. Profligate, unprincipled, heartless, and depraved as he was, saturated with vices, capable of any iniquity in the pursuit of pleasure and in the conquest of female virtue, yet the prince regent was not so far removed from humanity and so nearly allied to the nature of a fiend as to remain indifferent to the details of Mrs. Arbuthnot’s disclosures. On her part, the wily woman saw how deeply the arrow had penetrated, and how excruciatingly its barbed head rankled in the heart which it had pierced, and she chuckled inwardly as she felt that some result beneficial to herself and daughter would ensue from the course she had taken. ““Can you procure that fragment of a letter written by Sellis? ”’ suddenly asked the prince, as he stopped short. in front of where the bedchamber woman had remained. seated. “ Yes, I can,” was her response. “And you will do so? ” “T will.” | ‘‘Of course you expect your reward?” continued the prince. ‘“ What is it to be?” ‘““T am moderate in my ambition,” she answered. ‘“ All I need is that my own position at the court shall not be (C(O) nn) GDoOo <Si in