The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 233: what you’re looking at

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

nn nnn ee aU EE eetydynISE SEES the flesh and blood of hundreds of starving la- _ bourers upon his vast estates ;—away goes the cha- equipage, on the downy cushion of which slumbers in a dreamy listlessness the coal-mine owner of _ countless riches, all produced by a sweat as ago- _ state coach of Royalty to the Opera which fills the ' and their glancing lamps, and their pampered me- Se not thinking that the poor girl who made the satin the wealthy manufacturer who has just been voting torivet the iron oppression which already goads ——- _——— 218 THE MYSTERIES. ei a drag herself along through that morass of human reptiles, back to the cold and naked lodging where she had left a loved husband lying sick on a bundle of rags or a heap of straw, and famished little ones huddling together to keep themselves warm, while the poor father endeavoured to cheer his wretched offspring with the hope that their mother would be sure to bring them bread —a hope which in a few minutes was to experience so dire a disappointment! For, oh! honest poverty and unblushing vice are always to be found in the same districts—always inhabit the same neighbourhoods: because a bad reputation cheapens lodgings in those quarters, and the upright poor are driven by an imperious and stern necessity to seek the advantages which inveterate demoralization has thus procured. And it is in this manner that the honest poverty ends by being drawn into the vortex of corruption and absorbed in the mass of profligacy and crime: it is thus that the poor artizan is led to steal sooner than behold his children starve ;—it is thus that his wife is drawn into the loathsome circle whose centre is the gin-shop, where she imbibes the fire- water that drowns her cares and her better feelings at one and the same time;—it is thus, too, that the fair young daughter of these lost parents goes forth into the street to stretch out her hand to implore alms, as if she were holding it out to God, —when ié is caught by some licentious rake or hoary voluptuary, who drops gold into the palm that only hoped to feel the touch of pence—and then another. virtuous soul is lost, and another member added to the eighty thousand daughters of crime who crowd the finest thoroughfares and the most wretched alleys in the richest city of the universe ! But all this time, away rolls the portly Bishop in his splendid equipage, dreaming of his thirty thousand a-year and the fat livings which he has in his gift;—away flies the superb carriage contain- ing the peer whose enormous income is made up of riot,in which patrician beauty lolls so languishingly, dress that she wears, was witl: the same needle and thread sewing her own winding-sheet ;—away passes the sumptuous barouche, bearing to some banquet in the House of Commons some measure calculated his slaves to desperation: away glides the brilliant nising as that which streamed from the Saviour’s pores on the Mount of Olives!—away flies the pockets of foreigners with gold, while the vota- ries of the national drama are pining in debtors’ prisons or preparing to visit the Bankruptcy Court on the morrow ;—away, away they all go—those magnificent equipages, with their splendid steeds, nials,— away, away, spurning that ground to which the poor are crushed, and throwing up clouds of that dust which the famished slaves of toil are com- pelled to lick! But to return to our tale, ing forty,” observed the Tramper. that was habitual with him. plete surwey of the premises I spoke to you about ; and it’s easy enow to get in by the area; forit’s the Miles the Buzgloak pursued his path amidst the pestilential streets which lie behind the Abbey; and at length he entered a low public-house, or flash ken, known by the sign of the Jolly Prize- firhters. Nodding familiarly to the landlord as he passed the bar, he entered the tap-room,in which there was only one person seated at the moment he crossed the threshold. That person was Dick the Tramper,—a tall, ath- letic, stoutly-built man, with a shock of fiery red hair, a large round face to match, and bushy whis- kers of the same hue. * Well, Miles—is it all right ?” demanded this in- dividual, as his friend threw himself on the same bench near the fire. “All right,” responded the Buzgloak. “ The saw-bones Thurston will give thirty-five shiners— and I closed with him.” * That’s just what we said we should get by ask- “Well, I han’t been idle either,” he continued, in the husky voice “ Tve taken a com- on’y house in the square that hasn’t got bars at the kitchen winder.” “ So far, so good,” said Miles, Joe Warren ?” “Oh! he'll jine in with us,” answered Dick the Tramper, He says he’s quite sick of laying hid down yonder; and he'll make one in the affair, if it’s on’y to keep his-selfin practice. He'll meet us “ But what about DE eee at a certain part of the square which we’ve agreed - upon at half-past twelve precise.” “That's good again !” eried the Buzgloak. glad the Magsman’s in it: nothink never fails that he undertakes. But where’s the tools ?” Pm | “ Jemmy—eentre-bit—wrench—skeleton-keys— | and pistols, all stowed away safe,” responded the | pockets of his rough coat. “ All right,” said Miles, with an approving nod of the head. “ Well, we'll start ten minutes arter mid- night, eh ?—and iu the meantime we’ve got half-an- hour to smoke a clay and drink a pot or so.” “ With all my heart,” returned the Tramper. And the two villains set to work to enjoy them- selves accordingly. —-—— ~ CHAPTER UXT, THE ROYAL GUEST. We must now return to the Earl of Desborough, whom we left at the moment when he quitted Mr. Thurston’s house in May Fair. Tramper, clapping his hands upon the eapacious Summoning all his fortitude to his aid, after the | crushing assurance which he had received to the ef- fect that his last and only hope was fruitiess, the no- bleman returned home — shut himself up in his private apartment—and gave way to a long and pain- ful meditation. We cannot possibly endeavour to penetrate his. thoughts: but that they were of the most harrowing description, might be inferred from his occasional outbursts of passionate grief—the superhuman efforts he made to subdue the fearful excitement which thus maddened him at intervals—the anguish with which he from time to time dashed his hands _— | | (e(6) (EO) 9)(0)(6) m