apostrophe - What does " 'Nation " stand for in this context?


I was reading the novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. In Chapter 2, there are sentences like:



“I hope there ain’t, but can’t make so ’Nation sure of that,” said the guard, in gruff soliloquy. “Hallo you!”



I don't know what that apostrophe in the word 'Nation stands for. I searched for it on the Internet and in dictionaries, but could not discover the answer. Or is this just a printing error? (In China, Google is banned, so the only PDF I can find is the Project Gutenberg edition, which has the same text in this spot.)


Can anybody help me with this?




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