The Mysteries of London; or, Lights and Shadows of London Life — page 102: what you’re looking at

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

—_- —_— —-> —— —_——_— -* = ——— er oe _—_—- - THE MYSTERIES OF LONDON. 96 forget not that I am the same Pietro Bazzini that left the girl at Naples; and, now you have raised the question, I may tell you that such is the name I have used since I began a new life as a courier.” The padrone was about to reply, when there was an interruption caused by the arrival of Jacopo, the organ-boy spoken of by Borelli, and who was a short, sinister-visaged lad that looked about fifteen, but might have been much older. He had all the signs of habitual knavery stamped upon his countenance, and, as he entered with a slouching gait and & careless swaying of his body to and fro, the Italian saw in one rapid glance of his quick eye how completely, under an assumption of stupidity and indifference, the boy contrived to veil his crafty penetration and observant cunning. Depositing a small bundle on the table, and replying to the inquiring look of his employer, with a few words uttered in a coarse patois unintelli- gible to Bazzini, he drew a low stool near the fire, and applied himself to a close scrutiny of the Italian, whilst he pretended to feel an interest only in the contents of the pewter measure before him. “You see we have a pretty regular way of doing business,” observed Borelli, turning to his companion, and unfastening the parcel that had been brought. “ This is my share of the two last little matters we have been engaged in together. There,” he added, a gleam of satisfaction lighting up his countenance as he displayed from the bundle a varied assortment of such miscellaneous articles as are found in the drawing- rooms ofthe wealthy, and consisting of time-pieces, vases, jewellery, and nic-nacs generally, “my men - haye not been idle yesterday. I trust to their honeur to make a fair division of the spoil, for they know how useful I am to them—that is, I and Jacopo, my little jackall, as I call him; for I couldn’t manage half so well without him,” ‘Sedts The organ-boy, thus drawn into the conversation, grinned an acknowledgment of the compliment; and readily responding to the permission given by Borelli, opened a cupboard adjoining, and drew from one of the shelves a plate of bread and dried fish, on which he commenced making a hearty meal, A few words of encouragement from the padrone then led the boy to enter into a lengthened detail of those particulars to which Borelli had alluded. He explained that from various visits he had made to the mansion of Lord Walsingham, for the express purpose of noting the best way in which an entry could be effected, he had found that the place was left almost unprotected; that Lord Walsingham was rarely at his villa until a late hour, and those nights that he was away a butler and some female servants were the only persons left in the house. The lad further stated that in the front apartments, that opened on to the lawn, he had observed a considerable quantity of plate and other valuables placed upon a sideboard, and that it would not be difficult to obtain these by forcing a pane of giass out of one of the windows, and detaching the fastenings of the shutters. The great gates were locked after dusk, he said, but concealment in the garden might be easily managed until the time of entering the building. Possessed of this information, and agreeing to the proposition made by Borelli, the Italian shortly after rose to take his leave, with a promise that on the fol- lowing day, at the same hour, he would return to complete certain arrangements that were necessary to the future proceedings of both parties, A rough fare- well was given by the Piedmontese, and, with no alteration in that heavy, lumbering manner with a c——- ~— .-.-- which he cloaked his sly acuteness, the boy moved uncouthly towards the door, and with a gesture of significance removed the fastening, and uttered a short adieu as he left the passage clear for Bazzini’s egress, It was now three in the afterneon, and there was an interval of five hours, consequently, before the period arrived for him to meet the opera-dancer, against whom he had been plotting this diabolical scheme deception. To wile away the intervening ‘ime, he resolved to visit the billiard-rooms in Regent Street, where he had been engaged first of all as a marker, and when afterwards admitted into the confidence of the proprietor, as a recognised sharper, to assist in the plunder of the unwary. With this resolve to employ himself profitably in the interim, he quitted the region where his old associate was located, and escaping from the maze of courts and alleys by which the scene of his late interview was surrounded, he made his way inte Holborn, and thence proceeded direct to the West- end. Having found the billiard-rooms deserted, as the hour was too early for the frequenters, he lounged, instead, through Piccadilly, with the intention of crossing into the Green Park, and thence returning by a circuitous route to his lodgings in Soho. As he was brooding, with a firm confidence in his success, over the plan that he had formed respecting Celestine, the door of a mansion near him was violently closed, and & man, muttering savage imprecations whilst he de- Symp ge steps, brushed hurriedly past. The rapi- ity with which the person so unceremoniously ejected left the house prevented the Italian from noticing his features; but as a glove was dropped by him on the pavement in his haste, he hurried after the loser to restore an article that was too trifling to be withheld, and with this he overtook him a few paces off. The nature of the loss had not been communicated an instant, before, to his surprise, the person he ad dressed turned round, with a mingled expression of wonderment and pleasure, and exclaimed : “TI cannot be mistaken surely; it is Bazzini—he who was in the service of Lord Walsingham, as his — four years ago?” , “I remember you now—Mr. Jarvis, I believe,” plied the Italian, with a searching glance at his nomi found acquaintance, as if to read the thoughts that were passing in his mind; “I have a recollection, too, of a curious incident that took place at our last meeting abroad, when——” “ Hush!” interposed the agent qnickly, for it was the same man who had so comfortably established himself at Bradley Hall, during his brief visit; “we are here too much exposed to observation. Let us retire to the nearest tavern; I have that to say to you which is as well not overheard,” ; “As you please,” cried Bazzini; and falling in with the pace of his companion, he accompanied him to a public-house that stood in a bye-street } and passing up into a room above, where there seemed no prospect of intrusion, Jarvis called for wine and biscuits, and the two begar to enter into a deep and earnest conversation. “It would seem as if the fiend had heard me,” resumed Jarvis, referring to the accident that had brought them together; “,for at the very time you came up, I was wishing for just such a man as I know you to be—bold, resolute, and not to be daunted by trifling obstacles.” “In that last respect, not unlike another that I have had some dealings with,” returned the Italian, com cS (EOLA (OO) (C