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

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

THE MYSTERIES OF THY COTR’. 273 that the pagilistic encounter was abruptly brought to an amicable close by the two combatants shaking hands at the instigation of the landlord of the ublic-house, who came forth thus to act as me- lator; so that in a few moments the court was cleared of the uproarious rabble, who plunged back again through the portals of the boosing-ken. Almost immediately afterwards the lodging- house keeper reeappeared, 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, seid, “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 e service—and I need acarcely add that you will be liberally recompensed.” The mountebank joyously expressed his willing- ness to serve our young hero,—-who, having en- joined him to observe the strictest secrecy and etion, explained the nature of the object whieh he had in view. The mountebank cheerfully un- dertook it; and —our young hero’s separated, last words being, “You will be sure, therefore, to | gear come to the hotel in the morning for the note.” Having delivered thie parting instruction, Chrie- tian sped back to rejoin his friend Edgar Beverley, to whom he d the arrangements which he had just settled with the itinerant . The young lieutenant was well leaned with ov: hero’s pisn ; and he thanked him warmly for the generous interest be was thus exhibiting on his behalf. He penned a letter for Laura, so that it might be ready when the mountebenk 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 settled, they retired to rest. Ig was about noon on the following day that the mountebanks might have been eecn mareb- 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 oxtraor- dinary caper—or perbaps pausing to play off a practical joke upon poor Baron Raggidbak, who was toiling on with his huge drum slung behind him and his mouth-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 beet of times—had been etill more soured and embittered by vicissitude and adver- sity: and thus, when one of the mountebapks, lifting up a stilt, knocked his hat over his eyes — or when another knocked it off—or when a third, otill more mischievously inclined, inflicted a smart dow with a stilt against the Baron’s spindle siranks, -—he gave vent to his rage in low bat deeply uttered German imprecations, and cursed the ne- cessity which held him in euch companionship. But perhaps the reader would like to be in- formed how it was that his lordship had fallen from his high estate as Groom of the Stole, and bad sunk down into the heater of a drum and the player of a set of pandean pipes in the train of a troop of hargreierepe It cannot have been for- gotten that gh performing the of the Grand Duke’s Groum of the Belo in the Eagtish tinction of Baron Raggidbak,—yet when at home im his native city ot Quotha (if a city the trampery place deserved to be called) the worthy German was nothing more than a stable-groom, and his patrician title became lost amidst all otber wild and preposterous fictions. But Haggidbak—for this was really his surname—had so managed by hook and by crook to eat and to drink of the best when in the British metropolis, that he found it somewhat difficult to accommodate himesif, om hie return to Quothe, to the filthy sonr-erout and the beer of choleraic acidity which constituted the ‘staple refreshmente in the servants’ hall at the ducal paleee of Quotha—and not merely in the servants hall, but now and then in the ducal disio iteclf, when cash was short through non-arrival of subsidies from England. Ragyidbek therefore missed the wine and the ale, the fat eapons and the substantial steaks, which he had enjoyed at Mivart's; and in order to supply bim- self with creatare comforts more to his taste than the crows and beer which vied with each other in soarnces, he made away with some of the stable- It being perceived that Raggidbak was very often drank—end the Grand Duke well knowing that his dependant had no honest nor legitimate means of thus di ing himself in liquor—ordered an inquiry to take place; and behold! the ones illas- trious Bayon Raggidbek, who had been addressed es “my lord” in England, was suddenly dieoovered and imed to be a petty larcenist. His igno- minious dismissal from the ducal service was the immediate consequence; and with an equally an- feeling abruptness—as he considered it to be—he was ordered to betake himesif beyond the frontier of the Grand Duchy. This latter part of the sentence was however no real hardship, inasmuch as @ comparatively pleasant walk taken in any direction from the ducal capital, would bring an individual to the frontier of that paltry little State. To be briof, it was under these circumstances thas the injured and ill-used Raggidbak quitted his native city and the dural service, and made his way into Belgium. But having no regular and formal passports in his possession, and being looked upon in the common light of a rogue and bond, he received a hint from the police-authorities that he had better leave the country; end on ar- riving at Ostend, he was provided with a free passage across to Dover. Thus, on arriving in Eaglaad, this worthy gentleman of broken for- tunes was only too glad to accept employment in the company of the mountebanks. Retarsing from our digression, we tae up the thread of our narrative. It was abvut noon, as we have said, when the itinerant perfurmers—at- tended by the German who was alike their masi- ciam and their butt—were through the fields in the neighbourhood of Verner House. On reaching the front of that mansion, Baron Raggid- bak began to beat his drum and to blow away at the pandean pipes: while his stilted companions commenced their wonted anticse—dancing, capering, aad waving wands with ribbons attached to them. At first Sir John Steward was seised with indigna- tion at the idea of a set of persons, whom he re- garded as thieves and vagabonds, dering to sbow off in front of his mansivn,—the more 80 inasmuch metropolis, and there enjoying the style and dis-|as they had presumed to open the carriage-gate ® ee ad (GO) an (C DOO Col