The King of the School, or, Who will Win? — page 115: what you’re looking at

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

THE KING CF THE SCHOOL; OR, WHO WILL WIN? and be nominally taken into custody as had just been done. | A police-constable was left. in the room with them, #hile the inspector attended to other business, — . here ?” asked Frank, who. was anxious to know the worst. ‘Till the other charges are disposed of,” said the officer. 7 “ But how long will that be ?” “ Can’t say.” “« Please, sir, what time shali we have our bread and water ?” asked Freddy, who certainly kept up his spirits better than any of the ‘others. ,.. | _ To this impertinent question “the myrmidon of the law” returned no answer; and Freddy, hiding behind some of his companions, resolved to distinguish himself after the manner. of a certain very doubtful hero of re-~ mance, who | ‘Carved his name on Newgate stone.” Freddy, not being in Newgate, and having no chisel, contented himself with cutting his namre on one of the wooden benches with a pocket-knife. He had just completed it to his satis- faction when the inspector entered and opened another door, through which the boys were ushered into the presence of the magistrate. OO One or two of the delinquents had expected to see an awful figure clothed in searlet and ermine, and wearing a very large wig. Therefore, they were very surprised to find only a rather mild-looking old gentleman, dressed in ordinary costume, with nothing to denote his authority except that his seat was raised a little higher than the others, while on the wall above it was a very badly carved | ‘yepresentation of the lion and unicorn. Frank cast a glance round the place and very soon saw that near him, but ‘separated by a guard of police, stood the sham captain and some of those ‘who had aided him in the riot. Their names were then read over, and the inspector formally charged them with rioting and creating a disturbance —_— om 109 against the peace of our sovereign lady the queen, &c., &c. _’ As soon as this was done, Mr, Penis- ton, the solicitor engaged by the Earl | of Pembridge, rose and stated t¢ I “How long are we likely to remain 3 net Etaten Lat dls clients, the young gentlemen from Lexicon College, intended to make no defence, but threw themselves upon the mercy of the court, pleading in miti- gation of punishment their youth and the great provocation they had suffered. Captain Robinson and his companions were rather puzzled by this admission. They had passed the night in the lock-up, being unable to find bail good enough to satisfy the police, and had arranged a plan of defence whereby they hoped to clear themselves. All their schemes were now knocked upon the head. | Captain Robinson, therefore, pleaded guilty; urging that. he had been attacked in the first instance by Egerton, and that his companions had only come to his assistance when they saw him surrounded by a crowd of school- boys. The King of the School was about to contradict the latter part of this state- ment, but the magistrate interrupted him. ‘‘ As all the implicated parties have admitted the offence,” said he, “nothing remains but to pronounce their punish- ment. You are fined five shillings each; and remember, if anything of this kind occurs again, I shall send you to prison.” Our young friends very quickly pro- duced their money and paid the fines; ‘but cash was not quite so plentiful with their late opponents. It required all their funds to release art of the company, and one of them (not Captain Robinson, who took care to be treasurer) would certainly have been locked up in default, had not the Earl of Pembridge handed in the three shillings required to make up the amount of his ransom money. But there’s many a slip ’twixt the cup and the lip. Just as Robinson was turning round EO DOC A) (S(O) mn