The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 267: what you’re looking at

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268 e ° 4 THE WYSTERIES OF THB COURP., aud smoking their cigars, boldly faced the in- clement night. The lieutenant-colonel was not unlike his brother Octavian,—being of the middle | im height and of slender figure: he likewise wore a moustache—but his hair was somewhat darker. He had a milibary ‘ook, and was sitogotur = per- sonage of prepossessing appearance. was the companion whom. whom Captain Stanley had found for his presen ring rood Wet We Bridge some ae Nits way down aterloo res Planged fate into tp tly ny ensured they acoogted. Stanley acquainted } the office in b few @tkae with the busines whieh gin, an cl by & pts ogg The nest was by & picge of gold; and an aeies east as Be ieee one * Follow me, genttmen,” “and I will soon show you & -" @ life fn London.” | He led thet alo two of three narrow and ob- { air ' geure streets into @ court, which wes but tabiy lighted the panes of the sesbre struggling looker the ian ding winto or three o “t the front doom one opens and wotteli loosel. eA ena tt with looks of brazen fmmodeety, shaod Lf thresholds. ‘They flung forth lity gibae tnd ob- menity scene jeste at the passers-by; and w! man roughly béde them hold th vomited forth torrents of abnee —closing their doors at length, bat only to open their wind ows and continue théir hideous outpouring. The con- etable led the two offjcers to the extremity of the coart, and knocked « at e@ door which was shat. It was speedily opened looking old man; é¢nd Without the mento core. mony, the police-offficel entered, followed by Lord Charles Meredith and. Canley ashing open @ side-door, and abruptly drawing forth his bull’s-eye, or lantern, the constable threw thé light into the room: but there was no one there, An inner door however immediately | 3; and it - yomited forth so loathsome & Good of haman nature, that thé two officers gazed with singled horror and dis om those hideous specimens of the lowest of both sexes. | The room into which they thus poured then- selves, was almost entirely denuded of furniture : but that from which they had emerged, had the floor almost compictely covered with filthy mat- tresses; and both had their walls and ceilings as grimy and blackened as if the whitewasher’s brush had never touched them, Old men and boys— elderly women and young girls, formed this motley group, a glance over which sent a sensi. tion to the heart. Rags and fiith—the stamp of poverty and the impress of erime—misfortune and vice—ugliness and deformity in all their most re- volting shapes—together with the brazen hardi- hood of female depravity, were the jumbled charac- teristics of this loathsome ecene. “Now, gentlemon,” said the police-constable, “is the person you want amongst these P” “No: he is a boy of about curteen, with a sickly appearance, and very sharp features,” an- swered Captain Stanley, who thas had his tale ready. a Significant looks were rapidly exchanged amidst the motley crew,—these looks being as much as to imply that the individual so described was not any where upon the premises, nor was he indeed known to them,—which was not astonishing, inasmuch as the pretended object of the search was of Captain Stanley's own imaginative creation. But the visitors observed that a young woman, on hearing from among the to the inner room, she opening into the passage. up-stairs; and a door was speedily fo open and shat on the first Tell, gentlemen,” said the pelice- constable, cif the boy is not here, we must look into the {rooms up-stairs.” Re spabel the fron him,” said oe old man who @ front door, and red im the passage: he was the laodlond. this hath. some | -house. “We sha’n’t take your word for ff Mr. Dyson,” said the constable, purposel a decided eer of 6 tolleeten there is sot a better keeper ing-ken in all London than you are for sally off us policemen,” The old man ea a something ; And the con- atable ied the way up the eteircase. The other d| floors were visited; and they abounded in similar specimens of lost, aad demoralized hu- as those which were seen below. That email honse, which according to its sixe would have only jus jast sufficed for the residence of a decent family of half-a-dozen in number, contained a swarm of at least &fty persons, haddling and herd- ing together like so many swine—breathing an atmosphere which seemed fraught with pestilence —and rendering the entire place a hotbed for all the clements of of plegus, cholera, tnd the fearfallest The police-constable and the two officers issacd forth from the house, and were speedily outside the court. “ Did you observe, gentlemen,” asked the con- stable, “that girl who suddenly disappetred from the ground-floor rooms end hurried up-stairs ——” “Yos. What was her object ?” “Tt was to tell those above that {t was all right —tet might make themselves easy, for it was none of them who were wanted. Suppose for argument’s sake that you had given a true descrip- tion—inadvertently arvioee tae the £ slip out of your month, —end t the n who was really wantod hed bee been all the time up-stairs,—thd warning would have been quickly given, and an eseape effected by a back window, or perhaps a trap-door on the top of the house. Ah! gentle- men, you don’t know what dodges the keepers of these padding-ken are up to for the purpose of helping those who lodge with thom.” officer nof conducted Lord Charles Moreti and Captain Stanley to another house in the same neighbourhood, and where suppers were on in every room. It was the resort of and tramps, and was seldom frequented by thieves,—the mendicants who patronized it, en- deavouring to keep it as “select” as possible ! For thero ere aristocracies, grades, and distinctions even amongst the lowest strata of society, and amidst the whole range of demoralization’s sphere. In ” overy room throughout this lodging-house, the (COL (C DOO CS (COL