The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 202: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XVII THE PREFECTURE OF POLICE A MONTH had now elapsed since Jocelyn Loftus was so suddenly consigned to a mysterious imprisonment in Paris, on the ground of some defect or error of nomenclature in his passport; and it will be remembered that he was thus held captive, by order of the prefect of police, at the mansion of the prefecture itself. The room to which he was conducted has already been described as small and indifferently appointed. A _ tent- bedstead in an alcove, or recess, a table, a couple of chairs, a washing-stand, and two or three other necessaries, con- stituted the furniture. There were two windows, each well protected with iron bars, and looking down into a gloomy courtyard surrounded with the high walls belonging to other portions of the same building, so that escape in that quarter appeared to be impossible. The door was massive and studded with large iron nails; bolts had creaked and chains had rattled outside when it was closed upon the prisoner; and indeed every circumstance but too plainly indicated that this was in all respects a prison-chamber. Let us add that it was on the first story and was approached by a long’ dark corridor, in which Jocelyn was occasionally allowed to walk, and our description is as complete as the purposes of the narrative require. We stated that while Jocelyn was being conveyed in the hackney-coach to the prefecture of police, his own conjectures furnished him with some faint glimmering of the real truth _ as to the cause of his arrest. The brief examination he had undergone before the prefect himself confirmed those sus- picions which he had already entertained; nor had he much difficulty in divining who was the real author of his present 185 COMNICLOO© Ss (SO)