Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 189: what you’re looking at

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

172 REYNOLDS’ WORKS ‘Mr. Staunton was a Member of Parliament, and noted for the extreme liberality of his political opinions. He was at the time the only man in the House of Commons who dared raise his voice to assert that the people had rights from which they were most unjustly debarred, that the country was ruled by an arrogant, a selfish, and a rapacious oligarchy, and that what was termed ‘ British freedom’ was one of the most detestable of mockeries. Now, his uncle the Marquis of Hagledean was a staunch Tory; he hated his nephew Paton Staunton for his republican notions, while on the other hand, Mr. Staunton, finding that his narrow-minded relative would not permit liberty of con- science, proudly forbore from asking him any favour. It was therefore in consequence of Mr. Staunton’s poverty and want of fine prospects that Alexandrina Marston was hurried to the altar to become the bride of another man. ‘In 1816, two years after the marriage, Adolphus was born. In the course of a few months the affairs of India became so threatening, and some of the native princes obtained such successes over the British troops, that it was found necessary to confer the command of the Anglo-Indian army upon an officer of tried experience, skill, and valour. The government of the day offered the post to Lord Everton. He accepted it, and, with the rank of general, proceeded to India. It cost him no considerable pang to leave his young _ wife and new-born child, for he was a man whose ambition towered high above all the softer feelings of humanity. It would, however, be alike untruthful and unjust to afhirm that he experienced no emotion at all on parting from them. About the same time that this appointment took place, the Marquis of Eagledean died, his elder son succeeding to the title, and in a few months after this an accident occurred which all in a moment produced a remarkable change in the position and circumstances of the Honourable Paton Staun- ton. The new Marquis of Eagledean, with his brother, — both young men, — were upset in a boat on the Thames near Twickenham, and were drowned. ‘They were un- married, and thus Paton Staunton abruptly received the intelligence that he had become Marquis of Eagledean, with large estates and a revenue of thirty thousand a year. “From the time of Alexandrina’s marriage with Lord Everton, she and Paton had not met. Soon after her Gomicbooks. co