The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 360: what you’re looking at

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

Pee“ eee, THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. 349 At this moment the door burst open, and a tall the amount of the larceny at the valuo of about gaunt form strode in, with the spindle-shanks eighteenpence. But thoir great aim was to im- clothed in a strange pair of inexpreesibles. This was the Baron Raggidbek ; and the reigning Duke of M .xe-Stolburg-Quotha assumed his haughtiest demeanour on beholding the discharged and dis- graced functionary. “I want my righte!” exclaimed Reggidbak, atriking his fist forcibly upon the table up to which he had advanced, “ Dey say me get dronk— and me no get dronk! Me only too dam giad to be for seeing anything at Quotha to get dronk upon! Nothing but small beer—dam small beer! Den dey sall say me steal de plate off de harness— de plate not worth de stealing! And why for your Royal Highness not pay my wage regular? De Ponch and Judy showman he pay my wage re- gular: but de Grand Duke he never have not one farden! Dat ali de difference! I want my ° op rights “ Begone i” exclaimed the Grand Duke: “be- gone, I say !—or you shall be locked up ina for- tress for the remainder of your life.” “Ab ! dat all vare goot in Faderland,” exclaimed Reggidbak maliciously; “ but dat no goot in dis country! Your Royal Highness sali be for making me one excuse—or how you call it P—one apology ; and you sall be for taking me back into your ser- vice, mit de pledge dat you sall not be for ill-treat- ing me when we get back to Faderland.” ‘“* Now, my good fellow,” said the Coart official, who had no recollection of Baron Raggidbak, “vou had better take yourself off—or I shall call a constable and give you into his custody.” Baron Raggidbak began to curse and swear both in English and in German: he rent his hair -—he stamped and stormed—and he vowed that he would expose the characters of all the Grand Duke’s officials, as woll as their real position and standing in their native land, unless hie Royal Highnese should consent to do him justice. All these threats he uttered in English—which indeed, apart from the interjected German imprecations, was the language that he had spoken from the outeet, for the express behoof of the British Court official whom he found with his Royal Highness. ihe unfortunate Baron proceeded to create sach a tremendous disturbance, thet it was deemed necessary to send for a police- officer. He was then most ignominiously given into custody: bat it was not thought ex. pedient to convey him into the presence of a magistrate, on account of the threatened revela- tions. The miserable Baron was therefore dragged to the office of the Home Seoretary,—where, after a brief examination, a warrant was made out for his committal to Bethlem, “as a rebid and dan- gerous lunatic who had dealt in menaces against the august person of the reigning Duke of Maxe- Stolburg-Quotha.” A. highly coloured account appeared in the daily journale, accompanied by many comments upon “the state of miad of the unfurtunate nobleman, who had once filled a distinguished post at the Court of his Royal Highness, but from which he had been dismissed for maiversation to the extent of some hundreds of thousands of pounds.” Had those journals been honest, they would have used the word “ peoculation ;” and if they had been truthful, they would have represented press the public mind with the grandeur, pomp, and riches which prevailed at the Ducal Court of Maxe Stolburg-Quotha. On the following day the Chevalier Gumbinnen, the Chevalier Kadger, and Count Frumpenhausen appeared each in a bran new suit of clothes, pur- chased ready-made and privately of Moses and Son; and they received a warning from their ducal master to abstain thenceforth from the habit of eating raw onions, smoking bad cubas, and going without shirts when on a visit to this country— especially to avoid getting into rows~—with full permission to relapse into their old ways on their return to their own beloved Fatherland. Ea CHAPTER CLIV., THE JUNGLE. Tum scene changes toa far distant country. In @ cloudless sky the noon-day sun was ect like a huge ball of fire,—its torrid beams pouring down with a sultriness from which it would almost ap- pear that every living thing would shrink to the nearest shade. Not a breath of air fanned the leaves: motionless they hung, as if all artificial, with stems of iron wires. Upon the pools there was not the slighteat ruffle: the streams flowed so languidly that they seemed to be of quicksilver — a fluid too heavy to permit the slightest agitation upon the surface. All was likewise silent, as if the scene which we are describing was utterly un- tenanted by a living thing. I¢ was one vast wilderness of verdure, broken only by the places where the pools existed or the streams were slaggishly and almost imperceptibly gliding. Masees of underwood were interspersed with trees,—in many spots appearing singly—ia others forming small groups—in others again, con- gregating into the extent of woods—but ia the distance so thickly aggregated as to expand into the magnificence of forests. Though the atmo- sphere was so clear and so fully illuminated with the golden effulgence of the sun, yet was it not merely heavy with its intense sultriness; but in ite stagnation there was a eense of noisomences and disease. To breathe it was fraught with a profound oppressiveness: i¢ seemed impossible that the lunge could become expanded with such inhalation. Breathing itself was gasping: there was no vitality in that air: it afforded not the sence of active vigorous life. All was silent ; and no evidence of the existence of any living thing met the eye of the observer— if an observer there were. And yet how different was the case! Within the dense shade of the un- derwood wild beasta were lazily reposing, rendered languid almost to torpor by the stifling heat. Within the cup of the wild flower some venomous little reptile was coiled up: the cobra was con- cealed in the grass: and what seemed to be an ancouthly swollen part of the branch of some tall tree, was in reality the boa-constrictor twisted and twined around into a loathsome elimy knot. And there was an observer amidet that scene. By the side of a pool a man was seated, bathing y GOnNGIOOKSHeOn