The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 343: what you’re looking at

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328 were struggling to move the most solid masonry ; and, baffled, defeated, and furious, he stepped back again into the cabin, where he filled a tumbler to the brim with raw spirit, which he drank at a single draught. “We are done, old feller—done as nicely as that scoundrel of a nobleman could possibly bave wished!” he exclaimed at length, when the stifling sensation of the fiery alcohol had somewhat passed out of his throat. “So I see,” observed the Beggarman, who ap- peared to take the matter more coolly than his com- panjon. “But it will be a very strange and very unusal thing, Joe, if any one gets the better of us for song together.”’ “True, my dear feller,” rejoined the Magsman: “ and it isn’t by putting ourselves into a passion that we shall mend the present aspect of affaires, Come —let’s drink and smoke, since we're prisoners in this infernal den of a cabin; and to-morrow when our heads are cool and we've slept over it, we shall be better able to discuss what's to be done in the present emergency.” Lo . “ Agreed ” exclaimed the Big Beggarman, light- ing a cigar by the lamp that swung overhead. And while the two ruffians were regaling them- selves in the cabin, the anchor was weighed—the sails were unfurled—and the Royal George began to plough the deep waters of the Mersey. CHAPTER XCIIL ROYAUTY’S MOENING AMUSEMENT, It was about half. past ten o’clock in the morning ; and the Prince of Wales, wrapped in an elegant dressing-gown, was seated in one of the splendid saluons of Cariton House, feasting his eyes upon the forms of six charming creatures who were dauc - ing iv his presence. Cheerful fires blazed in the two grates which heated the room: the light of broad day fell with a roseate tint through the heavy crimson curtains ; —and the atmosphere was warm and perfumed. A beautiful young woman was seated at a piano, the strains of which she rondered appropriate to the complete pantomime of voluptuousness which the dancers were performing: for the melody was poured forth in soft transitions from the grave to the lively—from the energetic to the tender, ac- cording to the passions or sentiments pourtrayed by those witching English bayadores. Dressed im the gauzy garb of the ballet,—that attire, which although so scanty as to leave the form half naked, is in itself so nearly transparent as to allow little scope for the exercise of the imagi- tion with respect to those charms which it covers,— the six dancing-girls had evidently been chosen on account of their superior fascinations to minister to the pleasures of the royal voluptaary. As specimens of female loveliness they were per- fect—glorious examples of woman’s enchanting beauty—splendid models of all the outward graces and seductive charms of their sex. And as they were grouped together in the voluptuous dance which they were executing, it was impossible to be other. wise than ravished with the softness, smoothness, and polish of their forms—the gradual aad easy . transition between all their contours—the harmony = ee ee eee oe =—=——83 wee em om --+e-e4@ oe @-s20gre THE MYSTERIES. of the undulating lines which their busts, their figures, and their limbs presented in every view~ the flexibility and grace which distinguished all their motions—and the breezy and floating appear- ance which they assumed in the performance of that pantomime of the passions. Now did their eyes, speaking to the very soul of the Prince, produce an effect as if a succession of dreamy and sensuous raptures were stealing slowly and softly upon him; then glances of passion, ra- pidly and fervently darted, sent a thrill of ecstacy through his heart:—now he experienced joyous moments of melting tenderness as they stretched out their white arms towards him, as if wooing him to their delicious embraces; then, as they gently and gradually assumed attitudes in which wanton- ness was exquisitely blended with the most seductive grace, he felt the blood course like lightning in its crimson channels and his passions were excited almost to a fever and a delirium. Again—while the music pours forth its delicious melody—the dancers perform steps well calculated to show off their rounded yet elastic limbs, and rest for a few moments at a time in positions that dis- piay their symmetrical figures to the best advan- tage. Then from these attitudes of repose—so full of soft and voluptaous languor—they slowly melt as it were once more into the gentle undulations of a subdued, soft, and noiseless dance,—depicting all the phases of love’s passions and enjoyment by the sweet motion of the mouth, the eyes, the roand- ing arms, the arching neck, and the wavy, floating appearance of the figure. Thus, enchanting the mind and ravishing the senses, their graceful bat voluptuous performance carried the soul throuzh all tae grades of sensuous emotion—throogh all the transitions of soft excitement—and through all the phases of impassioned rapture. For these six beauteous votaries of the Terpsicho- rear art appealed to the sense rather than broke ab- ruptly upon it,—insinuated the soft witchery of their own loveliness and the magic tenderness of their per- formance, rather than excited the passions all in a moment; and in the same way that a liquid and silver voice steals deliciously upon the ear, while a shrill exclamation would only startle and annoy,— so did the united charms of the dancers and thet dance gradually enthral the feelings of the Prince in the bliss of an elysian dream. He beheld before him no unfeminine vaulting—no childish spinning and whirling with lightning speed —no uncouth distortion of limb threatening dialoca- tion, and producing an unpleasant effect upon the spectator :—but all was softness of motion—gentle- ness of undulation—and gracefulness of attitude— as if a melting poesy and a flowing rhythm were ap plied to gesture in order to express the warmth 0 sentiment, the sunny glow of passion, and the fervid rapture of ecstatic enjoyment. By thus avoiding all rapid, thrilling, and exhaus- ing successions of violent action, the six dancers were enabled to throw a profoundly sensual and 8 deliciously seductive power alike into their oounte- nances and their movements; ao that now their eyes swam in liquid wantonness as by their attitudes they permitted the licentious looks of the Prince to feast upon their swelling bosoms,—then, ere his gaze wes even half-satiated, they resumed the slow and un dulating movements which displayed the finished form of their limbe and the rich contours of thet — ._—_——_—ae/! ee — ieee COMNGBOOKS co