The Mysteries of the Court of London, Vol. 7 — page 384: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYATERIES OF THR COURT. that the puyilistic encounter was abruptly brought ¢o an amicable close by the two combatants shaking hands al the instigation of the landlord of the public-house, who came forth thus to act ks me- diator ; so that in a fow moments the court was cleared of the uproarious rabble, who plunged back again through the portals of the boozing-ken. Almost immediately afterwards the lodging-house keeper re-appeared, followed by the mountebank, who was now dressed in plain clothes of a very poor and shabby aspect. On pereceiving our hero, he made a*profound salutation ; and Christian, drawing him out into the court, ssid, “I have no doubt you are surprised that I should seek you here—but to come to the point at once, I think you can do me a service—and I need scarcely add that you will be liberally recompensed.” The mountebank joyously expressed his willing- nese to serve our young hero,—who, having en- Joined him to observe the strictest secrecy and discretion, explained the nature of the object which he had jn view. The mountebank cheerfully un- dertook it; and they separated,—our young hero's last words being, “ You will be sure, therefore, to come to the hotel in the morning for tbe note.” Having delivered this parting instruction, Chria- tian sped back to rejoin his friend Edgar Beverley, to whom he explained the arrangements which he had just settled with the itinerant performer. The young lieutcnant was well pleased with our hero's plan; and he thanked him warmly for the generous interest he was thus exhibiting on his behalf. He ponned a lettcr for Laura, so that it might be ready when the mountebank should call for it in the morning; and when he and Christian had de- liberated some little while longer upon the project which was thus scttled, they retired to rest. 1t was about noon on the following day that the mountebanks might have been acen march. ing upon their etilts through the fields in the neighbourhood of Verner House. In proportion as their forms were exalted into the air, so had their spirits seemed to rise: for they were laugh- ing and joking merrily amongst themselves,—one of them every now and then cutting some extraor- dinary caper—or perbaps pausing to play off a practical joke upon poor Baron Raggidbak, who waa toiling on with his huge drum slung behind him and his moutb-organ stuck in his buttoned-up coat, ready for melodious use at any moment. The ex-Groom of the Stole—never a good-tempered man in the beat of times—hbad boen atill more soured and embittered by vicissitude and adver- sity: and thus, when one of the mountebanks, lifting up a atilt, knocked his hat over his eyes or when another knocked it off~or when ea third, atill more. mischievously inclined, inflicted « smart blow with a stilt against the Baron’s spindle ehanks, —he gave vent to his rage in low but deeply uttered German imprecations, and cursed the ne- cessity which held him in such companionsbip. But perhaps the reader would like to be in- formed how it wasthbat his lordship had fallen from his high estate as Groom of the Stole, and had sunk down into the beater of a drum and the player of a set of pandean pipes in the train of a troop of mountebanks. It cannot have been for- gotten that though performing the part of the Grand Duke’s Groom of the Stole in the English metropolis, and there enjoying the style and dis- en nenennne nn eae $78 tinction of Baron Raggidbak,—yet when at home in his nativg city ot Quotha (if a city the traumpery place deserved to be called) tha worthy German was nothing more than « stabla-groom, and his patrician title became lost amidat all other wild and preposterous fictions. But Raggidbak—for this was really his surnamo—had so man by hook and by crook to eat and to drink of the boat when in the British metropolis, that he found it somewhat difficult to accommodate himself, on his return to Quotha, to the filthy sour-crout and the beer of choleraic acidity which constituted the staple refreshments in the servants’ hall at the ducal palace of Quotha—and not merely in the servants’ hall, buts now and then in the ducal dining-room itself, when cash was short through non-atrival of subsidies from England. Raggidbak therefore missed the wine and tho ale, the fat capons and the substantial steaks, which he had enjoyed at Mivart's; and in order to supply him. self with creaturé comforts more to his taste then the crout and beer which vied with each other in sourness, ho made away with some of the atable- gear and harness belonging to his ducal master. It being perceived that Raggidbak was very ofteh drunk—and the Grand Duko well knowing that hia depondant had no honest nor legitimate means of thus disguising himself in liquor—ordered an inquiry to tako place; and behold! the once illue- trioue Baron Raggidbak, who had boon addreawd as “ mydord” in England, was suddonly discovered and proclaimed to be a potty larceniat. fis igno- minious dismissal from the ducal service was the immediate consequence; and with an equally un- feeliog abruptness—as he considered it to be~—he was ordered to betake himself beyond the frontier of the Grand Duchy. ‘Tits Iatter part of the sentenco was however no real hardship, inasmuch as a comparatively pleasant walk taken in any direction from the ducal capital, would bring an individual to the frodtier of that paltry tittle State. To be briof, it was under these circursxtances that the injured and ill-used Raggidbuk quitted his native city avd the ducal service, and made his way into Belgium. But having no regular and formal passports in bie possession, and being looked upon in the common light of a rague and vaga- bond, he received a bint from the pulice-authoritips that i): had better leave the country; end ,on ar- riving at Ostend, he was provided with a free age across to Dover. Thus, on arriving in England, this worthy gentleman of broken for. tunve was only too glad tw accept employment in the company of the muuntebanks. Returning from our digression, we take up the thread of cur narrative. 1t was about noon, as we have said, when the itinerant porformers—at- tended by tho German who was alike their musi- cian and their butt—were passing through the fields in the neighbourhood of Verner House. On reaching the front of that mansion, Baron Kaggid- bak began to beat his druw and to blow away at the pandean pipes: while bis stilicd companions commenced their wonted antics—dancing, capering, and waving wands with ribbons attached to them. At first Sir John Steward was seised with indigna- tion gt the idea of a set of persona, whom he re- garded as thieves and vagabunds, daring to show off in front of his mausicn,—~the more so inasmuch as they had presumed to open the carriage-gate NOG (C SS