The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 101: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER IX THE ROYAL LOVER’S VICTIM WE must now conduct our readers to an apartment in a little villa belonging to the Duke and Duchess of Devon- shire and situated in the vicinity of Aylesbury. This room to which we have just alluded was in a state of confusion, while some of its features indicated, alas! too plainly, the mental condition of that lovely creature who was its occupant. For there were bars to the windows and a strong iron grating over the fireplace; the door, which was chained outside, had a sinall trap to enable the physician, the nurse, or other attendants to satisfy themselves from time to time as to what the patient was doing within; and all the furniture was so massive as to defy even the maniac strength which some sudden inclination for mischief might prompt to havoc and destructiveness. The chairs were, however, all scattered pell-mell about, some overturned, one piled upon another; the carpet was rolled away from a portion of the floor; the drawers were all open, and various articles of female apparel were lying here and there. But who is she, that lovely young woman, with her attire hanging negligently about her and her hair in disorder? Upon her head she wears a crown cut out of paper, and in her hand she carries a sceptre formed of the same material. There is a mingling of melancholy and wildness in her looks, a glitter of restlessness combined with an expression of touching pathos, evincing the sad truth that the flame of intellect burns steadily no longer, although the warmth of feeling be still the same. Oh, whither does her imagination wander, like a troubled dove unable to find its ark? Alas! alas! for that unhappy girl whose mind has become a chimera exercising the baleful 719 (Gi @) LG } KS {