The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

56 REYNOLDS’ WORKS thus redolent of garlic, rum, and bad cigars (the last-men- tioned being evidently full-flavoured Cubas), Christian was certainly astonished. However, he was now on the point of being conducted into the presence of the duke, and he thought to himself that he should find in this distinguished prince a very great contrast with the appearance of those personages of his suite whom he had as yet seen. The Chevalier Kadger preceded Christian with his person, and likewise with the odour that hung about him. He paused for a moment in an adjacent room to speak to a dirty, seedy-looking, unkempt man, who was taking out plate from a box, and who, as our hero subsequently learned, was Baron Farthenless, the privy purse. They passed on to another room, where Christian beheld a tall personage, somewhat stout, under forty years of age, coarse-featured, and vulgar-looking, dressed in some strange sort of military uniform, with a star upon his breast. The uniform had evi- dently seen good service, and if it had pertained to an English nobleman, would long since have found its way into the hands of his valet, and thence to some old clothes’ shop in Holywell Street. As for the star, it was certainly an ingenious com- bination of pieces of different coloured glass set in plated metal, looking very much like a “ theatrical property,” and its value might have been about three and sixpence. This personage was lounging near a window, in conversation with the Chevalier Gumbinnen and three or four other wor- thies, whose appearance was of corresponding seediness and tawdriness. The effect produced by this group was perhaps more novel than satisfactory; and Christian thought to himself that if this were the duke, he was a strange-looking man for a reigning sovereign, and had a strange-looking retinue. But there was certainly one thing in his favour, — that he evidently strove not to throw his adherents into the shade by any superexcellence on the score of his own outfit. . The Chevalier Kadger beckoned Christian to advance, and the Chevalier Gumbinnen, acting the part of lord chamber- lain and master of the ceremonies, presented the youth to the high and mighty Duke of Maxe-Stolburg-Quotha; but though the chevalier spoke in German, it was nevertheless | a sort of satisfaction to our hero’s mind to discover that he | had the faculty of speech at all. The youth bowed low | CORMICLOOOLK