The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 155: what you’re looking at

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

THE PRINCE AND THE ORPHAN 133 blood, in his heart raged consuming fires. Had the sacri- fice of all his royal prospects been demanded at the moment, or had Satan suddenly appeared to propose a compact in- volving eternal perdition, the prince would have yielded unhesitatingly, so long as the next moment should have assured him the possession of that lovely creature whose very innocence and resistance had rendered him all the more eager to revel in her charms. “You talk of white roses, the emblems of purity,’ he ex- claimed, the last words of her sublime remonstrance alone carrying their meaning into a mind that was all in a ferment with maddened desires and licentious longings. ‘‘ Oh, be thou my blushing rose, tender and soft as thou art in name — And, darting toward her, he sought to clasp ms in his arms. But quick as this movement on his part was, more lightly by far did the maiden spring aside, and, rushing past him, she gained the door. In another moment the prince had turned, and his hand was upon her shoulder; but at the same instant she succeeded in opening the door, and, dis- engaging herself by a desperate effort from the grasp which he fixed upon her, she darted from the room. Not a word, not a cry escaped her lips; desperation nerved her, and she knew that it was useless to raise an alarm. Fleet as the fawn, she reached the head of the stairs, down which she was about to precipitate herself, when she beheld Mrs. Brace ascending them. An ejaculation burst from the milliner’s tongue, for she instantly perceived, by the flying girl and the pursuing prince, how matters stood. Springing back, sweeping like lightning past his Royal Highness, whose arms were extended to clutch her, the maiden gained the stairs leading to the top of the house. Three or four steps did she ascend at a time; the angle was turned, the next landing reached. Another flight was already more than half-ascended ere the prince, panting and puffing, had surmounted the former. But Rose runs for her honour, which is dearer to her than life. The uppermost story is now gained, and the young lady enters the passage whence the attics open. But it forms no part of her plan to seek refuge in either of those rooms. As COMmiclsoo