The Young Duchess; or, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality — page 280: what you’re looking at

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

rn 266 a te THE YOUNG DUCHESS; OR, MEMOIRS OF A LADY OF QUALITY. which I have so successfully begun ; and then you shall talk to me of a recompense for my ser- vices. we have got rid of one of the most dangerous in- dividuals of the whole set.” ‘ Yes—that is evident,” said the Ambassador. “Who could have thought that an Englishman would have shown such a bloodthirsty and im- placable disposition in respect to the King of a foreign country ! Ah, by the bye, Count, are you certain that the Duchess will not find other in- struments of her vengeance, by the aid of that powerful talisman which she possesses—I mean gold ?” “Rest assured, your Excellency,” said Man- deville, ‘that when this conspiracy is completely broken up, the Duchess will have no heart to enter into another. Leave me to manage this much.” | “Good,” said the Ambassador. “ You manage everything so well, Count, that I am perfectly agreeable to leave the whole business in your hands. And now what is next to be done?” _ ‘‘ Be pleased, 8 responded Mandeville, ‘‘ to write a letter to my dictation. You will find that its purport explains the final object.” “Proceed,” said the Ambassador, arranging the writing materials before him. Mandeville accordingly dictated the terms of the epistle which the Ambassador was to pen ; and when it was finished, the address, which thé envoy also wrote to dictation, was as follows :— To Monsieur Borel, No. —, Granby Strect, Waterloo Road, Lambeth.” “And now,” said Mandeville, “let one of your Eixcellency’s servants go and ‘leave this letter at the address indicated. Let him simply knock at the door, place the letter in the hand of whom- soever may answer the summons, and then hastily depart without giving titterance to a word.” Count Mandeville now took his departure; and the French Ambassador-lost not a moment in sending off the letter to Granby Street, where it was delivered by about ten o’clock on that even- ing. We may now look into the interior of the house to which we have just been alluding. Per- haps however we should observe for the benefit of those readers who are not well acquainted with the metropolis, that Granby Street bears an infamous reputation ; and as at the date of which we are writing all the houses in that street were of an equally bad repute, without a single favour- able exception, there was no chance of the neighbours of any dweller there being inconve- niently curious or prying in respect to whatsoever sinister proceedings were carried on. It might however be different on the part of the public; and we shall now see whether any precautions were taken to provide against this latter contin- gency. It is to a back room in one of the houses in the street, that we are about to introduce the reader. The place was meanly furnished: the floor was dirty—the walls and ceiling were blackened with smoke. The shutters were closed, and a massive iron bar was fastened across them inside the room. Slips of green baize were nailed over the joints and chinks, doubtless to prevent any prying eyes from peering into that room from outside. The door was faced with iron plates; As you may judge by that correspondence, and it was likewise defended by an iron bar, so that it could not be very easily broken open by any persons bent upon a hostile invasion from without. A trap-door communicated with a cellar, whence there was an entrance into the front kitchen, which had a means of egress into a nar- row alley running between that and the adjacent house. We may here as well explain that the stronghold was originally placed in such a defen- sive condition for the use and behoof of a gang of coiners, and the arrangements were so devised that the shutters and door might be strong enough to resist the police in case of an attack, while the criminals themselves were making their escape by means of the trap-door and the secret avenue into the adjoining lane. The gang of coiners had become dispersed—it matters nof how; and the “strong room ” at present served as the meeting- place of certain conspirators: for the groundwork of the tale which Mandeville had told to the French Ambassador was strictly correct, though everything he bad said of the connexion of Sir Abel Kingston and the Duchess therewith was a pure fiction. The house which contained the strong room we have been describing, was kept by two old women who were sisters ; dnd as it was a place of im- mora] resort, there was nothing remarkable or extraordinary that several persons of foreign ap- pearance should occasionally be seen gliding into the premises between eleven and twelve o’clock at night. The old women did not know what the object of their meeting might be, and did not care so long as they punctually paid the rent of the room. They might have taken the foreigners for coiners, forgers, swindlers, or evil-doers of some complexion or another: but it scarcely entered the old crones’ heads that the meni would in reality have scorned any such disgraceful pursuit, and that they were political conspirators. It was verging towards midnight at the time when we are about to took into the strong room, as it is called. One person only had as yet ar- rived; and he was a man of about five-and-forty years ‘of age, with a countenance that must have at one time possessed a rare masculine beauty, but which now bore all the evidences of strong fierce passions, of dissipation, and of struggles with the world. The features were somewhat delicately formed ; the complexion was dark: he wore a long beard, which was only just beginning to show a few white threads amidst its glossy blackness; and the moustache gave effect to a sct of teeth that were well-preserved. This individual —whose figure we should remark was finely formed and well knit—was dressed in apparel a little the worse for wear; and as he sat smoking a black- ened clay pipe, his contracting brows and the sinister lowering of the expression of his coante- nance showed that the tobacco exerciscd not a wholesome sedative influence over his mind, but that it actually aided him to give a fuller scope to his dark thoughts. Presently rising from his seat, he opened a cupboard, and thence took forth bot- tles, glasses, and a jug of water; and just as he had mixed for himself a glass of brandy and the limpid element, in equal proportions, a knock was given in a peculiar manner at the door. The individual rose and opened it; and the gentleman who now entered laid aside a long mufiling cloak in which he was disguised, and the collar of which ag tamer ATS cote he aie ee sii cams gmc na i pe oO : Connicloooks Colin