The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 344: what you’re looking at

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

310 THE COURT OF LONDON drink in the fragrance of the balmy breath, oh, no sooner, I say, was I thus suddenly plunged into the sweets of paradise, than I became well aware that such raptures emanated only from the companionship of a most desirable woman. And abandoning myself to the thrilling and ecstatic feelings which were inspired alike by her impassioned ardour and by the charming novelty of this adventure, I became intoxi- cated, as it were, with the perfume of voluptuousness which stole upon my senses as a delicious dream sheds its influence upon the mind. Nothing could equal the intense fervour of those caresses which my companion lavished upon me in the midst of that pitchy darkness. Her kisses were long, burning, and devouring, as if she threw her whole soul into the profound sensuousness of her enjoyment. And when I gave back those caresses, she strained me to her bosom with all the indomitable fervour of her maddened desire, and with a violence which even hurt me, but which she had no power to control; while, beneath the influence of the kisses which I imprinted upon her lips, I felt her whole form twist, writhe, and undulate, as it were, in my arms like a silken cord that is shaken. For there was something even ferocious in the desires of that woman, something furious and raging in the headlong whirl of her passions.”’ ‘By Heaven! this is one of the most extraordinary adventures I ever heard,’’ exclaimed Lord Montgomery; ‘and if I did not know you so intimately, Gabriel, I should conceive that you were endeavouring to amuse me with a romance.” ‘““T am telling you the exact truth, on my most solemn and sacred word of honour,’’ returned Lord Florimel. “Such an asseveration is quite unnecessary, my dear friend,” said Montgomery. ‘ But pray proceed with your narrative. I am dying to learn the result.” ‘For some minutes,”’ resumed the young nobleman, “ I gave myself up entirely to the voluptuous enjoyment of that strange and mysterious adventure, as a man in a dream resolves to drink his fill of those Elysian sweets into the midst of which his fancy wafts him. The darkness which prevailed was that of hell; but the pleasure which I enjoyed was that of paradise. And all this time the carriage was whirling rapidly along, and I neither cared nor took the trouble to conjecture whither it could be bearing me, or GOMGooOo CO r | be } :