The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 288: what you’re looking at

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

LAST SCENE WITH THE GERMANS 259 uttered in English, which indeed, apart from the interjected German imprecations, was the language that he had spoken from the outset, for the express behoof of the British court official whom he found with his Royal Highness. The unfortunate baron proceeded to create such a tremendous disturbance that it was deemed necessary to send for a police officer. He was then most ignominiously given into custody, but it was not thought expedient to convey him into the presence of a magistrate, on account of the threatened revelations. ‘The miserable baron was therefore dragged to the office of the home secretary, where, after a brief examination, a warrant was made out for his committal to Bethlem, ‘‘ as a rabid and dangerous 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 journals, accompanied by many comments upon “ the state of mind of the unfortunate nobleman, who had once filled a dis- tinguished post at the court of his Royal Highness, but from which he had been dismissed for malversation to the extent of some hundreds of thousands of pounds.” Had those journals been honest, they would have used the word “ peculation,” and if they had been truthful, they would have represented the amount of the larceny at the value of about eighteenpence. But their great aim was to impress 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, purchased ready-made and privately of Moses & 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 fader- land. GOMmIiGdoGc SS) (S©@)