abrupt departure with more surprise than displeasure; and presently
afterwards, bursting into a fit of laughter, he said to the Duke,
"Oddsfish, George, this young spark might teach the best of us how to
manage the wenches. I have had my own experience, but I could never
yet contrive either to win or lose them with so little ceremony."
"Experience, sir," replied the duke, "cannot be acquired without
years."
"True, George; and you would, I suppose, insinuate," said Charles,
"that the gallant who acquires it, loses as much in youth as he gains
in art? I defy your insinuation, George. You cannot overreach your
master, old as you think him, either in love or politics. You have not
the secret /plumer la poule sans la faire crier/, witness this
morning's work. I will give you odds at all games - ay, and at the Mall
too, if thou darest accept my challenge. - Chiffinch, what for dost
thou convulse thy pretty throat and face with sobbing and hatching
tears, which seem rather unwilling to make their appearance!"
"It is for fear," whined Chiffinch, "that your Majesty should think -
that you should expect - - "
"That I should expect gratitude from a courtier, or faith from a
woman?" answered the King, patting her at the same time under the
chin, to make her raise her face - "Tush! chicken, I am not so
superfluous."
"There it is now," said Chiffinch, continuing to sob the more
bitterly, as she felt herself unable to produce any tears; "I see your
Majesty is determined to lay all the blame on me, when I am innocent
as an unborn babe - I will be judged by his Grace."
"No doubt, no doubt, Chiffie," said the King. "His Grace and you will
be excellent judges in each other's cause, and as good witnesses in
each other's favour. But to investigate the matter impartially, we
must examine our evidence apart. - My Lord Duke, we meet at the Mall at
noon, if your Grace dare accept my challenge."
His Grace of Buckingham bowed, and retired.
CHAPTER XXXII
But when the bully with assuming pace,
Cocks his broad hat, edged round with tarnish'd lace,
Yield not the way - defy his strutting pride,
And thrust him to the muddy kennel's side,
Yet rather bear the shower and toils of mud,
Than in the doubtful quarrel risk thy blood.
- GAY'S TRIVIA.
Julian Peveril, half-leading, half-supporting, Alice Bridgenorth, had
reached the middle of Saint Jame's Street ere the doubt occurred to
him which way they should bend their course. He then asked Alice
whither he should conduct her, and learned, to his surprise and
embarrassment, that, far from knowing where her father was to be
found, she had no certain knowledge that he was in London, and only
hoped that he had arrived, from the expressions which he had used at
parting. She mentioned her uncle Christian's address, but it was with
doubt and hesitation, arising from the hands in which he had already
placed her; and her reluctance to go again under his protection was
strongly confirmed by her youthful guide, when a few words had
established to his conviction the identity of Ganlesse and Christian.
- What then was to be done?
"Alice," said Julian, after a moment's reflection, "you must seek your
earliest and best friend - I mean my mother. She has now no castle in
which to receive you - she has but a miserable lodging, so near the
jail in which my father is confined, that it seems almost a cell of
the same prison. I have not seen her since my coming hither; but thus
much have I learned by inquiry. We will now go to her apartment; such
as it is, I know she will share it with one so innocent and so
unprotected as you are."
"Gracious Heaven!" said the poor girl, "am I then so totally deserted,
that I must throw myself on the mercy of her who, of all the world,
has most reason to spurn me from her? - Julian, can you advise me to
this? - Is there none else who will afford me a few hours' refuge, till
I can hear from my father? - No other protectress but her whose ruin
has, I fear, been accelerated by - - Julian, I dare not appear before
your mother! she must hate me for my family, and despise me for my
meanness. To be a second time cast on her protection, when the first
has been so evil repaid - Julian, I dare not go with you."
"She has never ceased to love you, Alice," said her conductor, whose
steps she continued to attend, even while declaring her resolution not
to go with him, "she never felt anything but kindness towards you,
nay, towards your father; for though his dealings with us have been
harsh, she can allow much for the provocation which he has received.
Believe me, with her you will be safe as with a mother - perhaps it may
be the means of reconciling the divisions by which we have suffered so
much."
"Might God grant it!" said Alice. "Yet how shall I face your mother?
And will she be able to protect me against these powerful men - against
my uncle Christian? Alas, that I must call him my worst enemy!"
"She has the ascendancy which honour hath over infamy, and virtue over
vice," said Julian; "and to no human power but your father's will she
resign you, if you consent to choose her for your protectress. Come,
then, with me, Alice; and - - "
Julian was interrupted by some one, who, laying an unceremonious hold
of his cloak, pulled it with so much force as compelled him to stop
and lay his hand on his sword. He turned at the same time, and, when
he turned, beheld Fenella. The cheek of the mute glowed like fire; her
eyes sparkled, and her lips were forcibly drawn together, as if she
had difficulty to repress those wild screams which usually attended
her agonies of passion, and which, uttered in the open street, must
instantly have collected a crowd. As it was, her appearance was so
singular, and her emotion so evident, that men gazed as they came on,
and looked back after they had passed, at the singular vivacity of her
gestures; while, holding Peveril's cloak with one hand, she made with
the other the most eager and imperious signs that he should leave
Alice Bridgenorth and follow her. She touched the plume in her bonnet
to remind him of the Earl - pointed to her heart, to imitate the
Countess - raised her closed hand, as if to command him in their name -
and next moment folded both, as if to supplicate him in her own; while
pointing to Alice with an expression at once of angry and scornful
derision, she waved her hand repeatedly and disdainfully, to intimate
that Peveril ought to cast her off, as something undeserving his
protection.
Frightened, she knew not why, at these wild gestures, Alice clung
closer to Julian's arm than she had at first dared to do; and this
mark of confidence in his protection seemed to increase the passion of
Fenella.
Julian was dreadfully embarrassed; his situation was sufficiently
precarious, even before Fenella's ungovernable passions threatened to
ruin the only plan which he had been able to suggest. What she wanted
with him - how far the fate of the Earl and Countess might depend on
his following her, he could not even conjecture; but be the call how
peremptory soever, he resolved not to comply with it until he had seen
Alice placed in safety. In the meantime, he determined not to lose
sight of Fenella; and disregarding her repeated, disdainful, and
impetuous rejection of the hand which he offered her, he at length
seemed so far to have soothed her, that she seized upon his right arm,
and, as if despairing of his following /her/ path, appeared reconciled
to attend him on that which he himself should choose.
Thus, with a youthful female clinging to each arm, and both remarkably
calculated to attract the public eye, though from very different
reasons, Julian resolved to make the shortest road to the water-side,
and there to take boat for Blackfriars, as the nearest point of
landing to Newgate, where he concluded that Lance had already
announced his arrival in London to Sir Geoffrey, then inhabiting that
dismal region, and to his lady, who, so far as the jailer's rigour
permitted, shared and softened his imprisonment.
Julian's embarrassment in passing Charing Cross and Northumberland
House was so great as to excite the attention of the passengers; for
he had to compose his steps so as to moderate the unequal and rapid
pace of Fenella to the timid and faint progress of his left-hand
companion; and while it would have been needless to address himself to
the former, who could not comprehend him, he dared not speak himself
to Alice, for fear of awakening into frenzy the jealousy, or at least
the impatience of Fenella.
Many passengers looked at them with wonder, and some with smiles; but
Julian remarked that there were two who never lost sight of them, and
to whom his situation, and the demeanour of his companions, seemed to
afford matter of undisguised merriment. These were young men, such as
may be seen in the same precincts in the present day, allowing for the
difference in the fashion of their apparel. They abounded in periwig,
and fluttered with many hundred yards of ribbon, disposed in bow-knots
upon their sleeves, their breeches, and their waistcoats, in the very
extremity of the existing mode. A quantity of lace and embroidery made
their habits rather fine than tasteful. In a word, they were dressed
in that caricature of the fashion, which sometimes denotes a
harebrained man of quality who has a mind to be distinguished as a fop
of the first order, but is much more frequently in the disguise of
those who desire to be esteemed men of rank on account of their dress,
having no other pretension to the distinction.
These two gallants passed Peveril more than once, linked arm in arm,
then sauntered, so as to oblige him to pass them in turn, laughing and
whispering during these manoeuvres - staring broadly at Peveril and his
female companions - and affording them, as they came into contact, none
of those facilities of giving place which are required on such
occasions by the ordinary rules of the pavé.
Peveril did not immediately observe their impertinence; but when it
was too gross to escape his notice, his gall began to arise; and, in
addition to all the other embarrassments of his situation, he had to
combat the longing desire which he felt to cudgel handsomely the two
coxcombs who seemed thus determined on insulting him. Patience and
sufferance were indeed strongly imposed on him by circumstances; but
at length it became scarcely possible to observe their dictates any
longer.
When, for the third time, Julian found himself obliged, with his
companions, to pass this troublesome brace of fops, they kept walking
close behind him, speaking so loud as to be heard, and in a tone of
perfect indifference whether he listened to them or not.
"This is bumpkin's best luck," said the taller of the two (who was
indeed a man of remarkable size, alluding to the plainness of
Peveril's dress, which was scarce fit for the streets of London) - "Two
such fine wenches, and under guard of a grey frock and an oaken
riding-rod!"
"Nay, Puritan's luck rather, and more than enough of it," said his
companion. "You may read Puritan in his pace and in his patience."
"Right as a pint bumper, Tom," said his friend - "Isschar is an ass
that stoopeth between two burdens."
"I have a mind to ease long-eared Laurence of one of his
encumbrances," said the shorter fellow. "That black-eyed sparkler
looks as if she had a mind to run away from him."
"Ay," answered the taller, "and the blue-eyed trembler looks as if she
would fall behind into my loving arms."
At these words, Alice, holding still closer by Peveril's arm than
formerly, mended her pace almost to running, in order to escape from
men whose language was so alarming; and Fenella walked hastily forward
in the same manner, having perhaps caught, from the men's gestures and
demeanour, that apprehension which Alice had taken from their
language.
Fearful of the consequences of a fray in the streets, which must
necessarily separate him from these unprotected females, Peveril
endeavoured to compound betwixt the prudence necessary for their
protection and his own rising resentment; and as this troublesome pair
of attendants endeavoured again to pass them close to Hungerford
Stairs, he said to them with constrained calmness, "Gentlemen, I owe
you something for the attention you have bestowed on the affairs of a
stranger. If you have any pretension to the name I have given you, you
will tell me where you are to be found."
"And with what purpose," said the taller of the two sneeringly, "does
your most rustic gravity, or your most grave rusticity, require of us
such information?"
So saying, they both faced about, in such a manner as to make it
impossible for Julian to advance any farther.
"Make for the stairs, Alice," he said; "I will be with you in an
instant." Then freeing himself with difficulty from the grasp of his
companions, he cast his cloak hastily round his left arm, and said,
sternly, to his opponents, "Will you give me your names, sirs; or will
you be pleased to make way?"
"Not till we know for whom we are to give place," said one of them.
"For one who will else teach you what you want - good manners," said
Peveril, and advanced as if to push between them.
They separated, but one of them stretched forth his foot before
Peveril, as if he meant to trip him. The blood of his ancestors was
already boiling within him; he struck the man on the face with the
oaken rod which he had just sneered at, and throwing it from him,
instantly unsheathed his sword. Both the others drew, and pushed at
once; but he caught the point of the one rapier in his cloak, and
parried the other thrust with his own weapon. He must have been less
lucky in the second close, but a cry arose among the watermen, of
"Shame, shame! two upon one!"
"They are men of the Duke of Buckingham's," said one fellow - "there's
no safe meddling with them."
"They may be the devil's men, if they will," said an ancient Triton,
flourishing his stretcher; "but I say fair play, and old England for
ever; and, I say, knock the gold-laced puppies down, unless they will
fight turn about with grey jerkin, like honest fellows. One down -
t'other come on."
The lower orders of London have in all times been remarkable for the
delight which they have taken in club-law, or fist-law; and for
the equity and impartiality with which they see it administered. The
noble science of defence was then so generally known, that a bout at
single rapier excited at that time as much interest and as little
wonder as a boxing-match in our own days. The bystanders experienced
in such affrays, presently formed a ring, within which Peveril and the
taller and more forward of his antagonists were soon engaged in close
combat with their swords, whilst the other, overawed by the
spectators, was prevented from interfering.
"Well done the tall fellow!" - "Well thrust, long-legs!' - "Huzza for
two ells and a quarter!" were the sounds with which the fray was at
first cheered; for Peveril's opponent not only showed great activity
and skill in fence, but had also a decided advantage, from the anxiety
with which Julian looked out for Alice Bridgenorth; the care for whose
safety diverted him in the beginning of the onset from that which he
ought to have exclusively bestowed on the defence of his own life. A
slight flesh-wound in the side at once punished, and warned him of,
his inadvertence; when, turning his whole thoughts on the business in
which he was engaged, and animated with anger against his impertinent
intruder, the rencontre speedily began to assume another face, amidst
cries of "Well done, grey jerkin!" - "Try the metal of his gold
doublet!" - "Finely thrust!" - "Curiously parried!" - "There went another
eyelet-hole to his broidered jerkin!" - "Fairly pinked, by G - d!" In
applause, accompanying a successful and conclusive lunge, by which
Peveril ran his gigantic antagonist through the body. He looked at his
prostrate foe for a moment; then, recovering himself, called loudly to
know what had become of the lady.
"Never mind the lady, if you be wise," said one of the watermen; "the
constable will be here in an instant. I'll give your honour a cast
across the water in a moment. It may be as much as your neck's worth.
Shall only charge a Jacobus."
"You be d - d!" said one of his rivals in profession, "as your father
was before you; for a Jacobus, I'll set the gentleman into Alsatia,
where neither bailiff nor constable dare trespass."
"The lady, you scoundrels, the lady!" exclaimed Peveril - -"Where is
the lady?"
"I'll carry your honour where you shall have enough of ladies, if that
be your want," said the old Triton; and as he spoke, the clamour
amongst the watermen was renewed, each hoping to cut his own profit
out of the emergency of Julian's situation.
"A sculler will be least suspected, your honour," said one fellow.
"A pair of oars will carry you through the water like a wild-duck,"
said another.
"But you have got never a tilt, brother," said a third. "Now I can put
the gentleman as snug as if he were under hatches."
In the midst of the oaths and clamour attending this aquatic
controversy for his custom, Peveril at length made them understand
that he would bestow a Jacobus, not on him whose boat was first oars,
but on whomsoever should inform him of the fate of the lady.
"Of which lady?" said a sharp fellow: "for, to my thought, there was a
pair of them."
"Of both, of both," answered Peveril; "but first, of the fair-haired
lady?"
"Ay, ay, that was she that shrieked so when gold-jacket's companion
handed her into No. 20."
"Who - what - who dared to hand her?" exclaimed Peveril.
"Nay, master, you have heard enough of my tale without a fee," said
the waterman.
"Sordid rascal!" said Peveril, giving him a gold piece, "speak out, or
I'll run my sword through you!"
"For the matter of that, master," answered the fellow, "not while I
can handle this trunnion - but a bargain's a bargain; and so I'll tell
you, for your gold piece, that the comrade of the fellow forced one of
your wenches, her with the fair hair, will she, nill she, into
Tickling Tom's wherry; and they are far enough up Thames by this time,
with wind and tide."
"Sacred Heaven, and I stand here!" exclaimed Julian.
"Why, that is because your honour will not take a boat."
"You are right, my friend - a boat - a boat instantly!"
"Follow me, then, squire. - Here, Tom, bear a hand - the gentleman is
our fare."
A volley of water language was exchanged betwixt the successful
candidate for Peveril's custom and his disappointed brethren, which
concluded by the ancient Triton's bellowing out, in a tone above them
all, "that the gentleman was in a fair way to make a voyage to the
isle of gulls, for that sly Jack was only bantering him - No. 20 had
rowed for York Buildings."
"To the isle of gallows," cried another; "for here comes one who will
mar his trip up Thames, and carry him down to Execution Dock."
In fact, as he spoke the word, a constable, with three or four of his
assistants, armed with the old-fashioned brown bills, which were still
used for arming those guardians of the peace, cut off our hero's
farther progress to the water's edge, by arresting him in the King's
name. To attempt resistance would have been madness, as he was
surrounded on all sides; so Peveril was disarmed, and carried before
the nearest Justice of the Peace, for examination and committal.
The legal sage before whom Julian was taken was a man very honest in
his intentions, very bounded in his talents, and rather timid in his
disposition. Before the general alarm given to England, and to the
city of London in particular, by the notable discovery of the Popish
Plot, Master Maulstatute had taken serene and undisturbed pride and
pleasure in the discharge of his duties as a Justice of the Peace,
with the exercise of all its honorary privileges and awful authority.
But the murder of Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey had made a strong, nay, an
indelible impression on his mind; and he walked the Courts of Themis
with fear and trembling after that memorable and melancholy event.
Having a high idea of his official importance, and rather an exalted
notion of his personal consequence, his honour saw nothing from that
time but cords and daggers before his eyes, and never stepped out of
his own house, which he fortified, and in some measure garrisoned,
with half-a-dozen tall watchmen and constables, without seeing himself
watched by a Papist in disguise, with a drawn sword under his cloak.
It was even whispered, that, in the agonies of his fears, the
worshipful Master Maulstatute mistook the kitchen-wench with a
tinderbox, for a Jesuit with a pistol; but if any one dared to laugh
at such an error, he would have done well to conceal his mirth, lest
he fell under the heavy inculpation of being a banterer and stifler
of the Plot - a crime almost as deep as that of being himself a
plotter. In fact, the fears of the honest Justice, however
ridiculously exorbitant, were kept so much in countenance by the
outcry of the day, and the general nervous fever, which afflicted
every good Protestant, that Master Maulstatute was accounted the
bolder man and the better magistrate, while, under the terror of the
air-drawn dagger which fancy placed continually before his eyes, he
continued to dole forth Justice in the recesses of his private
chamber, nay, occasionally to attend Quarter-Sessions, when the hall
was guarded by a sufficient body of the militia. Such was the wight,
at whose door, well chained and doubly bolted, the constable who had
Julian in custody now gave his important and well-known knock.
Notwithstanding this official signal, the party was not admitted until
the clerk, who acted the part of high-warder, had reconnoitred them
through a grated wicket; for who could say whether the Papists might
not have made themselves master of Master Constable's sign, and have
prepared a pseudo watch to burst in and murder the Justice, under
pretence of bringing in a criminal before him? - Less hopeful projects
had figured in the Narrative of the Popish Plot.
All being found right, the key was turned, the bolts were drawn, and
the chain unhooked, so as to permit entrance to the constable, the
prisoner, and the assistants; and the door was then a suddenly shut
against the witnesses, who, as less trustworthy persons, were
requested (through the wicket) to remain in the yard, until they
should be called in their respective turns.
Had Julian been inclined for mirth, as was far from being the case, he
must have smiled at the incongruity of the clerk's apparel, who had
belted over his black buckram suit a buff baldric, sustaining a
broadsword, and a pair of huge horse-pistols; and, instead of the low
flat hat, which, coming in place of the city cap, completed the dress
of a scrivener, had placed on his greasy locks a rusted steel-cap,
which had seen Marston-Moor; across which projected his well-used
quill, in the guise of a plume - the shape of the morion not admitting
of its being stuck, as usual, behind his ear.
This whimsical figure conducted the constable, his assistants, and the
prisoner, into the low hall, where his principal dealt forth justice;
who presented an appearance still more singular than that of his
dependant.
Sundry good Protestants, who thought so highly of themselves as to
suppose they were worthy to be distinguished as objects of Catholic
cruelty, had taken to defensive arms on the occasion. But it was
quickly found that a breast-plate and back-plate of proof, fastened
together with iron clasps, was no convenient enclosure for a man who
meant to eat venison and custard; and that a buff-coat or shirt of
mail was scarcely more accommodating to the exertions necessary on
such active occasions. Besides, there were other objections, as the
alarming and menacing aspects which such warlike habiliments gave to
the Exchange, and other places, where merchants most do congregate;
and excoriations were bitterly complained of by many, who, not
belonging to the artillery company, or trained bands, had no
experience in bearing defensive armour.
To obviate these objections, and, at the same time, to secure the
persons of all true Protestant citizens against open force or privy
assassinations on the part of the Papists, some ingenious artist,
belonging, we may presume, to the worshipful Mercers' Company, had
contrived a species of armour, of which neither the horse-armory in
the Tower, nor Gwynnap's Gothic Hall, no, nor Dr. Meyrick's invaluable
collection of ancient arms, has preserved any specimen. It was called
silk-armour, being composed of a doublet and breeches of quilted silk,
so closely stitched, and of such thickness, as to be proof against
either bullet or steel; while a thick bonnet of the same materials,
with ear-flaps attached to it, and on the whole, much resembling a
nightcap, completed the equipment and ascertained the security of the
wearer from the head to the knee.
Master Maulstatute, among other worthy citizens, had adopted this
singular panoply, which had the advantage of being soft, and warm, and
flexible, as well as safe. And he now sat in his judicial elbow-chair
- a short, rotund figure, hung round, as it were, with cushions, for
such was the appearance of the quilted garments; and with a nose
protruded from under the silken casque, the size of which, together
with the unwieldiness of the whole figure, gave his worship no
indifferent resemblance to the sign of the Hog in Armour, which was
considerably improved by the defensive garment being of dusty orange
colour, not altogether unlike the hue of those half-wild swine which
are to be found in the forest of Hampshire.
Secure in these invulnerable envelopments, his worship had rested
content, although severed from his own death-doing weapons, of rapier,
poniard, and pistols, which were placed nevertheless, at no great
distance from his chair. One offensive implement, indeed, he thought
it prudent to keep on the table beside his huge Coke upon Lyttleton.
This was a sort of pocket flail, consisting of a piece of strong ash,
about eighteen inches long, to which was attached a swinging club of
/lignum-vitæ/, nearly twice as long as the handle, but jointed so as
to be easily folded up. This instrument, which bore at that time the
singular name of the Protestant flail, might be concealed under the
coat, until circumstances demanded its public appearance. A better
precaution against surprise than his arms, whether offensive or
defensive, was a strong iron grating, which, crossing the room in
front of the justice's table, and communicating by a grated door,
which was usually kept locked, effectually separated the accused party
from his judge.
Justice Maulstatute, such as we have described him, chose to hear the
accusation of the witnesses before calling on Peveril for his defence.
The detail of the affray was briefly given by the bystanders, and
seemed deeply to touch the spirit of the examinator. He shook his
silken casque emphatically, when he understood that, after some
language betwixt the parties, which the witnesses did not quite
understand, the young man in custody struck the first blow, and drew
his sword before the wounded party had unsheathed his weapon. Again he
shook his crested head yet more solemnly, when the result of the
conflict was known; and yet again, when one of the witnesses declared,
that, to the best of his knowledge, the sufferer in the fray was a
gentleman belonging to the household of his Grace the Duke of
Buckingham.
"A worthy peer," quoth the armed magistrate - "a true Protestant, and a
friend to his country. Mercy on us, to what a height of audacity hath
this age arisen! We see well, and could, were we as blind as a mole,
out of what quiver this shaft hath been drawn."
He then put on his spectacles, and having desired Julian to be brought
forward, he glared upon him awfully with those glazen eyes, from under
the shade of his quilted turban.
"So young," he said, "and so hardened - lack-a-day! - and a Papist, I'll
warrant."
Peveril had time enough to recollect the necessity of his being at
large, if he could possibly obtain his freedom, and interposed here a
civil contradiction of his worship's gracious supposition. "He was no
Catholic," he said, "but an unworthy member of the Church of England."
"Perhaps but a lukewarm Protestant, notwithstanding," said the sage
Justice; "there are those amongst us who ride tantivy to Rome, and
have already made out half the journey - ahem!"
Peveril disowned his being any such.
"And who art thou, then?" said the Justice; "for, friend, to tell you
plainly, I like not your visage - ahem!"
These short and emphatic coughs were accompanied each by a succinct
nod, intimating the perfect conviction of the speaker that he had made
the best, the wisest, and the most acute observation, of which the
premises admitted.
Julian, irritated by the whole circumstances of his detention,
answered the Justice's interrogation in rather a lofty tone. "My name
is Julian Peveril!"
"Now, Heaven be around us!" said the terrified Justice - "the son of
that black-hearted Papist and traitor, Sir Geoffrey Peveril, now in
hands, and on the verge of trial!"
"How, sir!" exclaimed Julian, forgetting his situation, and, stepping
forward to the grating, with a violence which made the bars clatter,
he so startled the appalled Justice, that, snatching his Protestant
flail, Master Maulstatute aimed a blow at his prisoner, to repel what
he apprehended was a premeditated attack. But whether it was owing to
the Justice's hurry of mind, or inexperience in managing the weapon,
he not only missed his aim, but brought the swinging part of the
machine round his own skull, with such a severe counter-buff, as
completely to try the efficacy of his cushioned helmet, and, in spite
of its defence, to convey a stunning sensation, which he rather
hastily imputed to the consequence of a blow received from Peveril.
His assistants did not directly confirm the opinion which the Justice
had so unwarrantably adopted; but all with one voice agreed that, but
for their own active and instantaneous interference, there was no
knowing what mischief might have been done by a person so dangerous as
the prisoner. The general opinion that he meant to proceed in the
matter of his own rescue, /par voie du fait/, was indeed so deeply
impressed on all present, that Julian saw it would be in vain to offer
any defence, especially being but too conscious that the alarming and
probably the fatal consequences of his rencontre with the bully,
rendered his commitment inevitable. He contented himself with asking
into what prison he was to be thrown; and when the formidable word
Newgate was returned as full answer, he had at least the satisfaction
to reflect, that, stern and dangerous as was the shelter of that roof,
he should at least enjoy it in company with his father; and that, by
some means or other, they might perhaps obtain the satisfaction of a
melancholy meeting, under the circumstances of mutual calamity, which
seemed impending over their house.
Assuming the virtue of more patience than he actually possessed,
Julian gave the magistrate (to whom all the mildness of his demeanour
could not, however, reconcile him), the direction to the house where
he lodged, together with a request that his servant, Lance Outram,
might be permitted to send him his money and wearing apparel; adding,
that all which might be in his possession, either of arms or writings,
- the former amounting to a pair of travelling pistols, and the last
to a few memoranda of little consequence, he willingly consented to
place at the disposal of the magistrate. It was in that moment that he
entertained, with sincere satisfaction, the comforting reflection,
that the important papers of Lady Derby were already in the possession
of the sovereign.
The Justice promised attention to his requests; but reminded him, with
great dignity, that his present complacent and submissive behaviour
ought, for his own sake, to have been adopted from the beginning,
instead of disturbing the presence of magistracy with such atrocious
marks of the malignant, rebellious, and murderous spirit of Popery, as
he had at first exhibited. "Yet," he said, "as he was a goodly young
man, and of honourable quality, he would not suffer him to be dragged
through the streets as a felon, but had ordered a coach for his
accommodation."
His honour, Master Maulstatute, uttered the word "coach" with the
importance of one who, as Dr. Johnson saith of later date, is
conscious of the dignity of putting horses to his chariot. The
worshipful Master Maulstatute did not, however on this occasion, do
Julian the honour of yoking to his huge family caroche the two
"frampal jades" (to use the term of the period), which were wont to
drag that ark to the meeting house of pure and precious Master
Howlaglass, on a Thursday's evening for lecture, and on a Sunday for a
four-hours' sermon. He had recourse to a leathern convenience, then
more rare, but just introduced, with every prospect of the great
facility which has since been afforded by hackney coaches, to all
manner of communication, honest and dishonest, legal and illegal. Our
friend Julian, hitherto much more accustomed to the saddle than to any
other conveyance, soon found himself in a hackney carriage, with the
constable and two assistants for his companions, armed up to the teeth
- the port of destination being, as they had already intimated, the
ancient fortress of Newgate.
CHAPTER XXXIII
'Tis the black ban-dog of our jail - Pray look on him,
But at a wary distance - rouse him not -
He bays not till he worries.
- THE BLACK DOG OF NEWGATE.
The coach stopped before those tremendous gates, which resemble those
of Tartarus, save only that they rather more frequently permit safe
and honourable egress; although at the price of the same anxiety and
labour with which Hercules, and one or two of the demi-gods,
extricated themselves from the Hell of the ancient mythology, and
sometimes, it is said, by the assistance of the golden boughs.
Julian stepped out of the vehicle, carefully supported on either side
by his companions, and also by one or two turnkeys, whom the first
summons of the deep bell at the gate had called to their assistance.
That attention, it may be guessed, was not bestowed lest he should
make a false step, so much as for fear of his attempting an escape, of
which he had no intentions. A few prentices and straggling boys of the
neighbouring market, which derived considerable advantage from
increase of custom, in consequence of the numerous committals on
account of the Popish Plot, and who therefore were zealous of
Protestants, saluted him on his descent with jubilee shouts of "Whoop,
Papist! whoop, Papist! D - - n to the Pope, and all his adherents!"
Under such auspices, Peveril was ushered in beneath that gloomy
gateway, where so many bid adieu on their entrance at once to honour
and to life. The dark and dismal arch under which he soon found
himself opened upon a large courtyard, where a number of debtors were
employed in playing at handball, pitch-and-toss, hustle-cap, and other
games, for which relaxations the rigour of their creditors afforded
them full leisure, while it debarred them the means of pursuing the
honest labour by which they might have redeemed their affairs, and
maintained their starving and beggared families.
But with this careless and desperate group Julian was not to be
numbered, being led, or rather forced, by his conductors, into a low
arched door, which, carefully secured by bolts and bars, opened for
his reception on one side of the archway, and closed, with all its
fastenings, the moment after his hasty entrance. He was then conducted
along two or three gloomy passages, which, where they intersected each
other, were guarded by as many strong wickets, one of iron gates, and
the others of stout oak, clinched with plates, and studded with nails
of the same metal. He was not allowed to pause until he found himself
hurried into a little round vaulted room, which several of these
passages opened into, and which seemed, with respect to the labyrinth
through part of which he had passed, to resemble the central point of
a spider's web, in which the main lines of that reptile's curious maze
are always found to terminate.
The resemblance did not end here; for in this small vaulted apartment,
the walls of which were hung round with musketoons, pistols,
cutlasses, and other weapons, as well as with many sets of fetters and
irons of different construction, all disposed in great order, and
ready for employment, a person sat, who might not unaptly be compared
to a huge bloated and bottled spider, placed there to secure the prey
which had fallen into his toils.
This official had originally been a very strong and square-built man,
of large size, but was now so overgrown, from overfeeding, perhaps,
and want of exercise, as to bear the same resemblance to his former
self which a stall-fed ox still retains to a wild bull. The look of no
man is so inauspicious as a fat man, upon whose features ill-nature
has marked an habitual stamp. He seems to have reversed the old
proverb of "laugh and be fat," and to have thriven under the influence
of the worst affections of the mind. Passionate we can allow a jolly
mortal to be; but it seems unnatural to his goodly case to be sulky
and brutal. Now this man's features, surly and tallow-coloured; his
limbs, swelled and disproportioned; his huge paunch and unwieldy
carcass, suggested the idea, that, having once found his way into this
central recess, he had there fattened, like the weasel in the fable,
and fed largely and foully, until he had become incapable of
retreating through any of the narrow paths that terminated at his
cell; and was thus compelled to remain, like a toad under the cold
stone, fattening amid the squalid airs of the dungeons by which he was
surrounded, which would have proved pestiferous to any other than such
a congenial inhabitant. Huge iron-clasped books lay before this
ominous specimen of pinguitude - the records of the realm of misery, in
which office he officiated as prime minister; and had Peveril come
thither as an unconcerned visitor, his heart would have sunk within
him at considering the mass of human wretchedness which must needs be
registered in these fatal volumes. But his own distresses sat too
heavy on his mind to permit any general reflections of this nature.
The constable and this bulky official whispered together, after the
former had delivered to the latter the warrant of Julian's commitment.
The word /whispered/ is not quite accurate, for their communication
was carried on less by words than by looks and expressive signs; by
which, in all such situations, men learn to supply the use of
language, and to add mystery to what is in itself sufficiently
terrible to the captive. The only words which could be heard were
those of the Warden, or, as he was called then, the Captain of the
Jail, "Another bird to the cage - - ?"