The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER V THE SUPPER EATER THE scene now changes. On that same evening of which we are writing, a masked ball took place at. Buckingham Palace. The invitations, which were most numerous, had been issued to all the principal members of the aristocracy, male and female, and to the most distinguished persons of the fashionable world. As a matter of course all the prepara- tions were of the most splendid and sumptuous description, for royalty has got nothing to do but to dip its hand into the public purse which hard-worked and severely taxed Industry is forced to keep continuously filled, in order to procure all imaginable pleasures for itself, and to entertain its friends, its flatterers, and its hangers-on. The greater portion of the company appeared in fancy costume, but there were several — chiefly the highest per- sonages, male and female, of the aristocracy — who were apparelled in their usual manner. Amongst those present was the Duke of Maxe-Stolburg-Quotha, who had again run over to England (at the public expense, be it well under- stood) to visit his illustrious relative; and in order that this faithful chronicle of events may omit no detail calculated to prove interesting to the reader, it must be added that his Royal Highness did actually and veritably wear a new uniform upon the occasion. Little did he suspect, while mingling in the g aieties of Buckingham Palace, that his late eroom of the stole had on that very same day been seen by his late English secretary so industriously though some- what ignominiously employed in beating a drum and running his lips along the tubes of a mouth-organ. There too, amidst that company, was the Duke of Marchmont, who was glad to seek in any scene of excitement a relief 53 CoOnnicloookKks (SO)