The Young Apprentice; or, The Watch-Words of Old London — page 399: what you’re looking at

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

THE YOUNG APPRENTICE; OR, CHAPTER XVIII. THE DRUNKEN COLONEL AND THE JESUIT — THE MURDER OF THE OCCUPANT OF THE BLACK CHAMBER. THE stranger and his six friends were now en route for the Black Chamber. The information they had received, that the colonel was in a room close at hand, and that a gentleman slept in the Black Chamber iteelf, was such as to call upon them for the pimagt caution in their proceedings. The stranger, therefore whom Mercy Marner had spoken of as Father Ignatius), s ke to hig companions in a loy ¥ he yadment they were all outside t me ’ toom adjoini the gardens p i RE : : djoining ““My dear frignds,’? he ¢ words I have fe i fo youn ™ ta the ‘“ We do,’’ was t hispere ¢ will act upon the il eB rapt ond We * So shall you ® blessed, cried the Jesuit. ‘¢As your epiritnal viegr, | promised you all that. You will follow me then, and you will have in 80 followipg me go strong and aq complete an appreciation Of the importance of thig night’ work, that you will not hesitatg ta remava gny obstacle that may lip ip the way pf your ac- complishing it, “We will obey you,” cried gang, “even we the brink of the abyss tha you to take us leads to perdition.”’ “ My son,” sid the Jesuit, with g faint smile, “you know tha} the Holy (Church could and would dra you hack again to bliss if, in your good service, you went over tha abyss ‘you speak of.” ‘‘ T know it.’ “Yes, and go dq I,” said another. “Now, then, come on, good friends,” ggid Father Ignatius. } Leading the way with 9 najseless treag, which any one might have attributed to an apparition, the Jesuit at length reached the door of the room in which the Oolong] and Sir Robert Fan- court had waited so long the coming of Prince Charles. | At the door the Jesuit paused. Above the door there was a littla’gilt bracket, and upon it a small lamp, that seemed to be of silver, and to be a copy of some antique speci- men of that style of article, for jt was florid with decorations, It shed a faint and rather g gickly light gpout the spot. " This faint and sickly light fell upoy the countenance of the Jesuit, and showed that he was mach paler than usual, and that around his eyes there were atrange, livid-looking circleg, that betrayed the intense conflict of foal that that bold bad man was engaged in. © | The fact was that this Jesuit had motives and intentions in his appearance at the old palace of St. James that those who aided in getting him there, and who thought that the discovery of the hidden treasure of Charles the Firat was the grand object, little dreamed of. Holding up one hand as a signal to the party with him to stop, Ignatius now ‘placed hig ear to the panel of the door of the room, and listened intently. . For a few moments, no sound came upon his eara, and then, just as the Jesuit, with a puzzled expression, was about to move his ear from such close proximity to the panel, there came an odd sort of laugh from some one In the room. This one could be no other than the colonel. Ignatius started. ‘“ Hush, hush! listen,” he cried, as one of his party was about to speak. All was still for a few moments. Then again the odd laugh broke upon their ears. It requires je judgment upon the part of any PLL ALA: ¢ to:proclaim that that laugh was the merriment af & tipsy man. The real fact was, that the colonel, never a very femperyate mag j the best of times, had pet enced wiae dria hg, iq order to wile away e time til tag tince should come. When Sir Ro Ne) court left him, he ap- peared to take if fl f R , . f ad that he ought to do dgyble duty wi Toe Sette, and drink for the baronet and himgelé tea. fhe effect of thia idea wag, that while affairs were taking 80 yery serious § ee in the room that overlooked the gardeng af the palace, the ¢alonel was drinking bimgelt into a state of in- toxicatian. | | There, in t, he sat, in not paar chair, with an insane look on his face, [gughing at nothing. The Jesuit was not slow in coming to a cor- rect conclusiag in regard to the state of the in- dividual, whoever he might be, who was in the yoom, at the door af which he and his party had stopped. After § moment's panse, he said to his friends, in a log tone— “You will keep the door from absolutely losing, so that at a word from me you can into the room. I will now go in alone.” The party bowed assent to the proposition. Then placing his hand on the lock of the door, he very quietly opened it, and stalked into . the chamber. Some half-dozen wax candles lighted this apartment very perfectly. A good fire, moreover, lent an additional air of comfort to it. It was very elegantly furnished indeed. Upon a table, in the centre, stood a goodly collection of decanters and glasses. Glass, as well as silver, and some gold dishes of fruit, too, were upon the table, so that the chamber had evidently a pleasing and convivial character. The colonel, with his face very red indeed, gat low down in his chair, and rolled his sleepy, Intoxicated eyes about in a fashion traly lu- dicrous, as he tried to sing— “© * Wine, wine, glorious wine, Is the only tipple that’s quite divine ; Ha, ha. ha! boys, how it cheers us, To beauty’s eyes it e’er endears us; Yes—yey—-— ff Bh! curse it | I forget the'trest. Well, no matter, if that Jjool—for he is a fool—if that fool, Sir Robert Fanocourt, won't come and take his turn at the decanter, why it’s incumbent on me do his turn for him, Ladies and gentle- én,” he continued, addressing the chairs and tableg as if they were component parts of some assembly, “I assure you I feel sufficient friend- ~ ee 4 2 & AOS 3 GOVE OO © SS) CO lin