The Mysteries of London; or, Revelations of the British Metropolis — page 179: what you’re looking at

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

OF LONDON. | 177 Countess Cantacouzini alighted and hopped over the mud till she reached the house. It was a very strange sort of house. There was no door to it; nothing to show that any one could _ enter it, otherwise than by escalade, and even that might have been difficult, for all the windows were closed with strong shutters, presenting an impregnable and uniform rampart of wood. The little woman seemed to be in some diffie culty ; she was endeavouring, by raising herself on her toes, to reach a small hole pierced in the shutter of one of the ground floor windows, but could not manage to reach high enough. At last, she called the coachman, who, lifting her by the shoulders, raised her up to a level with the hole. She placed her mouth against it, and gave a sort of call, Who’s there? growled a hoarse voice, from be< hind the shutter. Donna delle notte, carrissimo mio, replied the little woman, through the hole in the shutter. Ali’s well! growled the voice, take care, _ The coaciiman and the old lady withdrew to a little distance, and this precaution was not a su= perfiuous one. The shutters were thrown open, and the breastwall of the window, which was of wood, painted to imitate stone, was at the same moment icwered, and forming as it werethe steps — of a carriage, afforded a wide and commodious entrance to the house. comicbooks.com™