The Young Duchess; or, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality — page 278: what you’re looking at

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

_ $$$ 264 TIIE YOUNG DUCHESS; OR, MEMOIRS OF A LADY OF QUALITY. to be fast asleep, and whose very red face and somewhat disordered toilet seemed to afford huge delight to a parcel of little boys who were playing about, and who felt convinced that the snoring mariner was drunk. Up the steps, coming from the Park, an old gentleman was painfully toiling. He was very much bowed, and his limbs were so infirm that when he had managed to plant one foot upon a step, he could scarcely drag up the other after him. He supported himself on a stick; and his capacious shoes seemed to indicate that he was gouty. He was dressed in an old-fashioned style: he wore no whiskers—and his face seemed to be marked with wrinkles. He had on a pair of green spectacles, of that kind which is provided with shades, so that the eyes themselves were alto- gether concealed. His long grey hair hung from beneath a low broad-brimmed hat; and there was something so comical in his appearance that the attention of the little boys was for a moment di- verted from the drunken sailor to himself. The old gentleman, however, appeared very good- natured; for with difficulty thrusting one of his gloved hands into the pockets of his curiously cut coat, he thence extracted some halfpence, which. he tossed down the steps, so that all in a moment there was a regular scramble for the booty on the part of the joyous urchins. Indeed such was their uproarious clamour, that they awoke the drunken sailor, who sat up for an instant, took a sleeepy look at the old gentleman, muttered three or four imprecations ina foreign tongue, and then sinking back again, began to snore louder than ever. The old gentleman looked at his watch, and continued to ascend the steps with perhaps a trifle more ease if not alacrity than before. Just as he reached the base of the column,' the clock at the Horse Guards began to strike eight. Alice Denton, who was about half a dozen paces dis- tant from the column, at once dropped her ker- chief; and a handsome well-dressed gentleman, who was passing, courteously stooped to pick it up for her. She had advanced a pace or two ; but, dear me! how awkward! she dropped her kerchief a second time. On this occasion she had to stoop to pick it up for herself: but as she | raised her eyes, she beheld the infirm old gentle- man standing before her. “That will do,’ he said quickly. Duchess a “ Yes. -Hush!” answered Alice, in a low and subdued tone. ‘‘ Here is the packet.” “Tt is well,” was the response. ‘ You have kept your word, Duchess.” Alice Denton left the packet in his hand; and according to the instructions which she had re- ceived, glided away towards the cab which was waiting for her. The infirm old gentleman hastened to consign the packet to his pocket :. then he cast a furtive anxious look around: and behold! the foreign sailor was close at his elbow! Neither drunken nor sleepy now was the mariner—but sober and broad awake, and with a purpose and meaning in his looks too, as he caught hold of the infirm gentleman’s arm, saying, with a slight French accent, “ You must-come with me!” At the same instant the journeyman gasfitter —as he seemed to be—also appeared upon the spot; and he ‘whispered in the ‘infirm gentle- “Tt is I. at ae tie ranaien en adem aten aintiberein otdete aa pe ge ‘man’s ear, “Sir Abel Kingston, I know you— and you must yield to your destiny !” “Who are you?” asked the miserable man, clutching the arm of the seeming mechanic ‘No matter. I know you! The others do not know who you are. It will be your own fault if they learn your true name. Take any name you like.” “But what is the meaning of this ?” asked Sir Abel tremulously. — “You will see :"—and the grimy-looking me- chanic stood back, while the French sailor on one hand, the journeyman carpenter on the other, ‘and the short stout man in the soiled shooting- jacket and drab shorts, closed in upon the wretchéd baronet, whom they hurried to the cab which was waiting, and into which they thrust him, they themselves entering with him. The blinds were drawn down ; and away the vehicle drove. Three or four persons stood to look on: but the whole proceeding was very short, and they could make nothing more of it than the circumstance of an infirm old gentleman being hurried by some strange-looking men into a cab. ‘What is it ?” said some one to the seeming mechanic, who stood loitering at a little distance. “Merely an old gentleman who managed to sneak out of his lunatic asylum, and so the keepers have been obliged to be up to all sorts of dodges to nab him again:’—and having given this reply, which was evidently perfectly satis- factory, the seeming mechanic turned upon his heel and continued his way. Proceeding to a small coffee-shop in an obscure street in the neighbourhood of the Haymarket, the mechanic quickly made a signal change in his person, by putting on clean clothes and linen, and washing the grime from his face and hands. Thence he bent his way towards Bond Street, and in a few minutes reached the Clarendon Hotel. “Tt is all right, sir,” he said, as he entered his master’s sitting-room. ‘‘ The capturé was made as neatly as possible. Miss Denton did it beauti- fully.” ‘‘And how was Sir Abel disguised ?” Mandeville. “Ye was capitally got up, sir—as they would say at the theatre,” replied Edmund Vaughan. “An infirm old gentleman—whiskers and mous- tache shaved off —and with some dye or tint he had made his cheeks look all wrinkled.” Edmund proceeded to give his master the re- maining particulars; and Mandeville then stepped - into his carriage, which was in readiness, and drove away to the mansion of the French Am- bassador. On announcing his name, he was at once conducted up into the private cabinet of the great diplomatic functionary, whom he found there alone. ‘It is done, your Excellency,” said Mandeville. ‘1 know it,” replied the Ambassador: and un- locking a drawer in his desk, he produced u sealed packet. ‘This has just been delivered by one of the men.” “Ah!” exclaimed Mandeville: “then your Excellency now possesses the proofs of the whole conspiracy unless indeed I am very much mistaken.” “TIT would not open the packet until you came, Count,” said the Ambassador. “But, Ah! what if these documents be written in cipher ?” asked YN Wn) COMO et cre