The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 265: what you’re looking at

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

BELLENDEN PRIORY 239 had belonged to the Bellendens from generation to genera- tion; but which were even more perilously involved than the priory property, on account of the claims of the Montgomery family. ‘Touching these matters, however, we shall have to treat more in detail hereafter; for the present we must speak of the Marchioness of Bellenden, the present owner of the priory. . This lady was now in her thirty-seventh year, and was famed for her beauty, her accomplishments, and her benevo- lence. A glance at her early history is necessary for the purposes of our tale. She belonged to the Montgomery family, and becoming an orphan at a tender age, was left to the care of an aunt, who, being a mercenary and intriguing woman, resolved to ensure her niece a brilliant position by means of a “good marriage.’ Thus, scarcely had she attained her seventeenth year, when the innocent, artless, and beautiful Laura was commanded to receive the addresses of the Marquis of Bellenden, an old man in his sixty-second winter. Then there was a sad and even terrible scene be- tween the orphan Laura and her aunt the Dowager-Countess Montgomery; and although there were no witnesses to that scene, it was nevertheless rumoured at the time that Laura had thrown herself at her aunt’s feet and had confessed that her affections were already engaged. But whatever were the reasons that Laura urged against the marriage proposed on her behalf, certain it is that the Dowager- Countess Montgomery was inexorable; and it was repre- sented to the unhappy Laura that family reasons required the tremendous sacrifice at her hands, inasmuch as the litigation which had then been in progress about ten years would be amicably settled by this second intermarriage of the two families. In short, Laura was dragged, as it were, to the altar; and the young creature of seventeen became The honeymoon (such a honeymoon as it must have been!) was passed at the Bellenden estate in Warwickshire; and then the marquis brought home his bride to the priory. But he did not long survive this most unequal alliance into which he had forced his youthful victim; and his death took place with a sud- denness which seemed to savour of a just retribution for his cruelty in blighting all the best and purest affections of her young heart. The family physician pronounced his death the wife of the old nobleman of sixty-two. | @) S (C(O)