The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 221: what you’re looking at

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

rE SE beens ee Rta 0 Or env ee eee eee eS OO ee _.." ' the charge of murdering Anthony Pollard. Se eee ie, ne HT é 208 THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. and then too she had her bonnet and shawl on, over with him so much as a donkey, much less a when captured—which seemed to corroborate Mrs. | horse; and one of the Queen’s carriages was every Webber's account of a protracted interview with ; day sent from Buckingham Palace to convey his the old man: while the unfortunate young woman’s } Royal Highness to Court, or out for an airing, or own explanation of an intended flight from the | to wisit the public buildings, and so forth. Baron house, was regarded merely as an excuse to ac-| Farthenless held the office of Privy Purse; and count for the circumstance of her being thus | Christian could not help thinking that the name of dressed in all the apparel in which she had first | this functionary was most ly ominous arrived at the dwelling. in respect to the state of the ducal exchequer. The magistrate had but one duty to perform— One thing he noticed—which was that Baron one course to pursue; and this was to commit! Farthenless took immense care of the Duke's Lettice Rodney for trial at the next assizes, on | plate,—only giving it out when his Royal High- ness dined at the hotel, but never opening the chest for its display on the dinner-table of the — ducal suite when his Royal Highness banqueted | at the palace or elsewhere. Another high official CHAPTER XL. was Herr Humbogh—whose name was pronounced ' just like that word which Englishmen are accus- tomed to ejaculate when expressing @ derisive incredulity of anything which they hear, or when Cugistias AsHTon entered upon his duties as | denouncing an imposture, a quackery, or a cheat. vate English secretary to the Duke of Maxe- | This gentleman was denominated the Privy Seal: Pe albutg- Quothe and a week passed, during | his duties were light and pleasant, as well as which he gave his Royal Highness the utmost | easily performed, and with but little responsibilitr, satisfaction. In the meantime he had become | —being limited indeed to the careful keeping of acquainted with all tho noblemen and gentlemen | an old brass seal on which the dacal arms were forming the suite of that most illustrious prince ; | emblazoned, and the value of which as a piece of and perhaps the reader may wish to know a little | metal might be about threc-halfpence. The men- more of these same German worthics. tion of Count Frumpenhausen will complete this They were eight in number,—delighting in | aristocratic category,—his lordship bearing the names as euphonious to pronounce as ‘they were | title of Gold Stick, and his duty being to carry 8 easy to apell; and these shall be enumerated. | brass-headed cane on those occasions when his Firstly, there was Count Wronki, who filled the ducal master was graciously pleased to grant 8 THE DUCAL SECRETARY. - — —_ eee eee —— ——_em = - office of Lord Steward, and whose chief avocation ! audience to English noblemen and gentlemen who _ appeared to be in giving as few orders as possible | called to pay their respects to the reigning and keeping down the hotel expenses to the utmost | Sovereign of Maxe-Stolburg-Quotha. of his ability. The reader is alreacy aware that; But though any one of such Enelish noblemen the taciturn Chevaler Gumbinnen occupied the | and gentlemen could, without much incoavenience high post of Lord Chamberlain, with which was to his own finances, have drawn a cheque upon his combined that of principal Lord of the Bed-/| banker for an amount that would have purchased chamber : but if this latter office included the care | all the personal property possessed by the Duke of the Duke’s wardrobe, it was very nearly aj and his entire suite,—yet such is the servile, sinecure,—for a single portmantcau of small di- ! grovelling, lickspittle character of the higher and memajons could without difficulty contain all the | middle orders of the English, that the profoundest coats, waistcoats, and trousers which his Royal | respect was paid by all visitors to this trumpery Highness possessed; and as for the linen, when | Duke and the beggarly, half-starved horde of rapa- ipere Whre half-a-dozen shirts in use and half-a- | cious Germans that he had brought over with hia. ozen more at the washerwoman’s—applving the | It was however sufficient that he was nearly re- eame estimate also to false collars, handkerchiefs, | lated to Prince Albert—that he bore a ducal title and etockifiys—the amount of this great prince’s |—and that he was an independent Sovereign (in under-garmente was not of an extent to require a | the pay of Russia and Austria)—it was sufficient, great deal of supervision. Baron Raggidbak was | we say, that he was all this to ensure for dim the the Groom of the Stole—the precise duties of | reverential devotion of those scions of the British Which office Christian Ashton was at a loss to com- pare and gentry who flocked to Mivart’s w prehend; unless indeed they consisted in the | pay their court. eating and drinking of all that his lordship could | When the weck had expired, and Christian was by any means get hold of—lounging away his time ; about to take his departure at five o'clock—his | —reading newspapers—or quarrelling with a com- | usual hour—he looked about for Baron Farthenless, rade over a game of picquet for sixpenny stakes. | to whom he was directed to apply for his salary. The Chevalier Kadger was the Equerry; and he | He could not however find the Privy Purse in any was io almost constant attendance upon his Royal | one of the suite of rooms occupied by his Royal Highness: but his leisure time was expended in | Highness and his retinue ; but in the ante-chamber smoking full-flavoured Cubas, and in renewing tho | he found all the other noblemen and gentlemen of odour of garlic and rum which he seemed to make | the ducal household assembled together. It im- it a rule to carry about with him, Then there mediately struck Christian that these also were was General Himmelspinken, who filled the office | waiting for the Privy Purse, in order to receive of Master of the Horse: but this—at least in | such moneys as might be due to them; and yet, on England, whatever it might have been in Ger- | a second thought, he repudiated the idea as some- many—was an unmistukable sinccure: for the | thing too preposterou®, that such high and mighty Duke of Maxe-Stolburg-Quotha had not brought | functionaries could possibly receive weekly salaries, - WT vr.” eawete “QoS, we owe, —Oewees 4 Tem Ome we =e eee —————————r rE ee : COMMIC DOO Col