 60 From the very first moment that Victoria was called to the throne she manifested a strict determination to exact a scrupulous observance of all rules, regulations, sad presidents, which related to court etiquette and official dignity. The Presence Chamber is never entered by anyone who is not fully conversant with the laws of the court, and the mode of conduct and demeanor which they enforce. The rigid maintenance of these rules is nevertheless calculated to render the Queen an isolated being as it were, amidst her court, for no one is permitted to commence a conversation nor make a remark until first addressed by Her Majesty. Then every word must be so measured, every syllable so weighed, that the mere fact of conversing with royalty would be deemed a complete labour, and even a perilous undertaking by those not conversant with the routine of the court. Holford had seen much to surprise and astonish him. The image of the Queen ever haunted his imagination, her voice ever rang in his ears. He disliked Prince Albert that low vulgar, uneducated, despised obscure pot boy entertained of feelings of animosity. He scarcely knew wherefore against the young German who was evidently destined to become the husband of the England's Queen. Again and again did he ponder upon the mysterious conversation between the two ladies of the court which he had overheard, and he felt an ardent and insuperable longing to fathom their meaning to the bottom. But how was this to be done? He determined to obtain access to the drawing-room once more, and trust to the chapter of accidents to lucidate the mystery. Accordingly he contrived that same afternoon to obtain access to the royal apartments without detection once more, and once more also did he conceal himself beneath the sofa. Fortune appeared to favour his views and wishes, not many minutes had elapsed after he had scounced himself in his hiding-place, when the two ladies whose conversation had so much interested him on their preceding day slowly entered the yellow drawing-room. The following dialogue then took place. How very awkward the vicant was last evening, my dear Duchess, he would insist upon turning the pages for me when I sat at the grand piano forte, and he was always too soon or too late, although he pretended to read the fantasia which I played bar by bar. That is very provoking, said the Duchess. I believe there is to be a drawing-room tomorrow at St. James. Yes, your grace, must have forgotten that Her Majesty decided last evening upon holding one. How many a young heart is fluttering now with anxiety and eager anticipation of tomorrow, observed the Duchess, a drawing-room is most formidable to the novice in court affairs, but the most entertaining portion of the embarrassment of the novice is the fear that the gentleman who bears the name of the court circular, and who is invariably stationed in the presence chamber, may o' met to mention her presence in the report which he draws up for the newspapers. George III, in his consort, held drawing-rooms weekly for many years, said the Countess. George IV held drawing-rooms but very seldom. William and Adelaide usually held about five or six in his season, and after all, what can be more magnificent, what more eminently calculated to sustain the honor and dignity of the Crown, than a British court drawing-room. The tasteful dresses of the ladies, the blaze of diamonds, the waving ostrich plumes and lapettes, and gold net, and costly truel, constitute rather the characteristics of an oriental fiction than the reality of the present day. The most magnificent drawing-rooms, in my opinion, observe the Duchess, are those which are called collar-days. The appearance of the knights of the garter, St. Patrick, the thistle, the cross and bath, and all English orders in their respective collars and jewels, in the presence of the sovereign, is splendid in the extreme. And how crowded upon drawing-room days are the passages and quarters of St. James' palace continue the Countess. On the last occasion many of the piers and pierses of the highest rank were compelled thus to wait for nearly three hours before their carriages could reach the palace gates. The most beautiful view of splendid equipages found in a glance upon the ambassador's court at St. James. The carriages of the foreign ministers being decidedly the finest and most tasteful that are seen in the vicinity of the palace on those occasions. Of a truth this must be the most splendid court in the world, said the Countess, since France became half-Republican, and since Spain was compelled to copy France. Yes, our court is the most splendid in the world, echoed the Duchess in a tone of triumph, as if her grace were well aware of that court she herself formed a brilliant ornament, and more splendid still will it be when the queen shall have conferred her hand upon the interesting young prince who arrived yesterday. Have you heard when the royal intentions to conduct an union with his serene highness, Prince Albert, will be communicated to the country? Not until the close of the year, and the marriage will therefore take place at the commencement of 1840. The prince will pay but a short visit upon this occasion, and then return to Germany until within a short period of the happy day. God send that union may be a happy one, ejaculated the Countess, but, oh my dear, do not relapse again into those gloomy foreboddings which rendered me melancholy all yesterday evening interrupted the Duchess. Alas, your grace is well aware of my devoted attachment to our royal mistress, and if there be times when I tremble for the consequences of, breathe it not, give not utterance to the bear idea, cried the Duchess, in a tone of the most unfaithful horror. Providence will never permit an entire empire to experience so great a misfortune as this. Maladies of that kind are hereditary, said the Countess, solemnly. Maladies of that species descend through generations, unsparing, pitiless, regardless of rank, power, or position. Oh, it is horrible to contemplate. Horrible, most horrible, echoed the Duchess. The mind that thus labors under constant tear of the approach of that fearful malady requires insistent excitement, perpetual change of scene, and this restlessness which we have observed on the part of our beloved sovereign, and those intervals of deep gloom and depression of spirits, when the craving, after variety and bustle, is not indulged. Are all? Oh, I comprehend you too well, and marriage in such a case, perpetuates the disease. Yes, yes, we must surround our sovereign with all our love, all our affection, all our devotion, for bitter, bitter are the moments of solitary meditation experienced in intervals by our adored mistress. Such is our duty, such are desires to the Countess, the entire family of George III has inherited the seeds of disease, physical and mental. Scrofula and insanity said the Duchess with a cold shutter, which were inherent in that monarch added the Countess. Did your grace ever hear the real cause and spring of that development of mental alienation in George III? I know not precisely to what incident your ladyship eludes, so though Duchess. That unhappy sovereign resumed the Countess when Prince of Wales fell in love with a beautiful young Quakeress, whose name was Hannah Lightfoot, and whom he first beheld to the window of a house in St. James Street, for some time his royal highness and the young lady met in secret and enjoyed each other's society. At length the passion of the Prince arrived at that point when he discovered that his happiness entirely depended upon his union with Hannah, Lightfoot. His royal highness confided his secret to his next brother, Edward, to Dr. Wilmont, and to my mother. Those personages were the only witnesses of the legal marriage of the Prince of Wales with Hannah, Lightfoot, which was solemnized by Dr. Wilmont in Cousin Street, Chapel. May fair, on the year 1759. I have heard that such a connection existed to the Duchess, but I never thought until now that it was of so serious and solemn a nature. Your grace may rely upon the truth of which I now tell you. Not long after the Prince came to the throne the ministers discovered his connection with the Quakeress. The Royal Marriage Act was ultimately framed to prevent such occurrences with regard to future princes, but it did not an all the union between George III and Hannah, Lightfoot. Was there any issue from this marriage inquired the Duchess? There was issue, answered the Countess solemnly, a deep gloom suddenly passing over her continents. At my mother's death I discovered certain papers which revealed to me many, many strange events connected with the court of George III and in which she was a confident. But the history of Hannah, Lightfoot is a sad one, a very melancholy one, and positively can I assert that it led to the subsequent mental aberration of the King. And there was issue resulting from that union your ladyship says, exclaim the Duchess deeply interested in these disclosures. Yes, there was, there was. Return the Countess, but do not question me any more at present. On a future occasion I will place in the hands of your Grace the Papers which my deceased mother left behind her, and which I have carefully treasured up in secret, unknown even to my husband. And are the revelations so very interesting demanded the Duchess? The events which have taken place in the family of George III would make your hair stand on end, replied the Countess, sinking her voice almost to a whisper. But pray, question me no more at present, another time, another time, she added hastily, you shall know all that I know. There was something so exceedingly mysterious and exciting in the tone and manner of the Countess that the Duchess evidently burned with curiosity to make further inquiries. But her fair companion avoided the subject with tear and disgust, and the conversation accordingly reverted to the engagement existing between Prince Albert and Queen Victoria. Nothing more was, however, said, which we deem it necessary to record. But when the two ladies had retired from the apartment, Holford had plenty of food for mental digestion. He had discovered the fatal drawback to the perfect happiness of his sovereign, and he now perceived that those who dwell in palaces and wear diadems upon their brows are not beyond the reach of the sharpest arrows of misfortune. During the remainder of that evening, Holford was the uninterrupted possessor of the yellow drawing-room. There was a grand ball in another suite of apartments, but it was not until between three and four o'clock in the morning that the pot boy considered it safe to quit his hiding-place. He was now undecided whether to beat a retreat from the royal dwelling or to favor it with his presence a little longer. The last conversation which he had overheard between the Duchess and the Countess had excited him in the most lively interest, and he was anxious to hear more of those strange revelations connected with the family of George III, a continuation of which the Countess had appeared to promise her noble friend. He was moreover emboldened by the success which had hitherto attended his adventures in the palace, and he consequently resolved upon prolonging his stay in a place where the morbid taste for the romantic encountered such welcome food. Upon leaving the yellow drawing-room at about half past three in the morning, as before stated, Holford proceeded to the pantry to lay in a supply of provender as usual. He was so pressed with hunger upon this occasion that he commenced an immediate attack upon provisions, and was thus pleasantly engaged when to his whore and dismay. He beheld a shadow of a human form suddenly pass along the wall, for it was standing with his back to the lamp that was burning in the passage. He turned around, and his eyes encountered the cadaverous and sinister countenance of the resurrection man. Well, this is, fortunate, said the latter. What? You hear, ejaculated Holford, trembling from head to foot. Yes, certainly why not, said the resurrection man. It struck me that as you never came near me and the cracksman, you must be still in the royal crib, and I considered that to be a sign that all was right. So I mustered up my courage and came to look after you. The cracksman is waiting on the hill. Then let us leave this place immediately, cried Holford. We can do nothing at present. I was going to take my departure within an hour. Come, let us go, and I will tell you everything when we are in a place of security. What is the meaning of this, demanded the resurrection man? You can't have been here all this while without having found out where the plate is kept. Listen for one moment, said Holford, a sudden idea striking him. The queen leaves for Windsor the day after tomorrow, and then will be the time to do what you require, and I can give you all the information you will want. At present nothing can be done, nothing, and if we stay here much longer we will be discovered. Well, said the resurrection man, provided that some good will result from your visit, there will, there will. Then I must follow your advice, for, of course, you are better able to judge at what can be done and what can in this crib than me. The resurrection man glanced around to him, but fortunately there was no plate left upon the shelves on this occasion. Holford felt inwardly pleased at the circumstance for the idea of abstracting anything beyond a morsel of food from the palace was abhorrent to his mind. The resurrection man intimidated that he was ready to depart, and the pot boy was only too glad to be the means of herring him away. They left the palace and entered the gardens, which they treaded in safety. A profound silence reigned around the morning air was chill and piercing. The fresh atmosphere was nevertheless most welcome and cheering to the young pot boy, who had passed so many hours in close and heated rooms. They reached the wall on Constitution Hill and safety, and in a few moments were beyond the enclosure of the royal domains. CHAPTER 61 The King dawned upon the great metropolis. The landlord and landlady of the boozing kin on Safon Hill were busily employed, as we have seen them upon a former occasion, in dispensing glasses of all sorts to their numerous customers. The bar was surrounded by everything the most revolting, the most hideous, and the most repulsive in human shape. Well, Joe, said the landlord to a man dressed like a butcher, and whose clothes emitted a greasy and carrion-like smell. What news down at Cow Cross? Nothing particular answered the man, who followed the pleasant and agreeable calling of a journeyman knacker. We have been precious full of work lately, and that's all I knows or cares about. Seventy-nine horses I see knocked down yesterday, and out of them fifty-three were so awful, diseased, and glandered when they was brought in, that we was obliged to kill them and cut them up with masks and gloves on. It was but three weeks ago that we lost our best man, Ben Biddle. You recollects, Ben Biddle. I knowed him well, so the landlord. He took his morning here, regular for sixteen years, and never owed a penny. But do you know how he died? Demanded the knacker, staring the landlord significantly in the face. Can't say that I do. He died of a fearful disease, which is getting more and more amongst human critters every day, continued the knacker. He died of the Glanders. The Glanders, he ejaculated the landlady with a shutter, and all the persons who were taking their morning at the bar crowded around the knacker to hear the particulars of Ben Biddle's death. You see, resume the knacker, now putting on a very solemn and important air. There is more diseased horses sold in Smithfield Market than sound. The art of doctoring a dying horse so that he looks as lively and sound as possible to any one which ain't very knowing in them matters has come to such a pitch that I'm blow enough if the wisest ain't taken in at times. We have horses come into our yard that was bought the same morning in Smithfield and seemed slap up animals, but in a few hours the effects of the stimulants given to them goes off. The plugs falls out of their noses, and there they are at the point of death. Why, if a horse has got four white feet, they'll paint three or perhaps all of them black, and that part of the deception isn't never found till they're frayed in our yard. But about poor Biddle, said the landlord. Well, in comes a horse one day continued the knacker, and although we saw he was dead lame and although done up, we never suspected that he had the Glanders. So, Ben Biddle had the killing on him. He drives a poleaxe into the animal's skull, and he takes the wire and thrusts it into the brain as business like as possible. While he was stooping over the beast, his hat falls off his head, and his handkerchief, which is always carried on his hat, fell just upon the horse's mouth. The brute snorted out the last groan at the very moment that Ben picks up his handkerchief. So, Ben puts the handkerchief again into his hat, and puts his hat on his head, and away he goes to the public house to have a drop of half and half. Very right, too, said the landlord, who no doubt spoke freelingly. Well, proceeded the knacker. Ben drinks his share, and presently he takes his handkerchief out of his hat quite permissionless like, and wipes his face. In a few minutes he feels strange pain in the eyes, just as some dust had got in, but he didn't think much of it, and so on he goes back to the yard. In a few hours, Ben was taken so bad he was obliged to give up work, and by eight or nine o'clock he was forced to take him to Bartholomew's hospital. He was seized with dreadful fits of vomiting, and matter came out of his nose, eyes, and mouth. By the morning his face was all covered over with sores, holes appeared in his eyes, just for all the world as if they had gotten the most tremendous smeltpox in him, and his nose fell off. By three o'clock in the afternoon he was a dead man, and our herds say that he died the most awful agonies. And that was the glanders, said the landlady? Yes, he got him by wiping his face with the pocket-hanker-chip that had fallen on the horse's nostrils. How shocking ejaculated several voices! And is the glanders increasing, asked the landlord? The glanders his increasing, answered the knacker, and I feel convinced that it will soon become a disease as regular among human beings as the smeltpox or measles, because the authorities doesn't do the duty in preventing the sale of diseased animals. And how would you remedy the evil? I would have the Lord Mayor and Corporation appoint a proper veterinary surgeon as inspector in Smithfield Market, a man of great experience and knowledge who won't let himself be humbugged or gammered by any of those infernal thieves that gets a living eye and makes fortunes too by selling diseased animals doctored up for the occasion. Yes, that's certainly a capital plan of your ins to the landlord approvingly, but what becomes of all the flesh of the horses that go to your yards? You may divide the horses that's killed by the knackers into three sorts, answered the man, that is first those horses that is quite healthy, but that has met with accidents in their limbs, second those that perhaps the least thing disease or in the very last stage through old age, and third those that is altogether rotten. The flesh of the first is bought by men whose business it is to boil it carefully and sell it to the sausage makers. It makes the sausages firm and is much better than beef. There isn't a sausage shop in London that don't use it. Then the tongues of the first-rate animals goes to the butchers who salts and pickles them, and I'm bloated if any of them could tell from the best ox tongues. Well, I'll never eat sausages or tongues again, cried the landlady. Oh, nonsense, it's all fancy, exclaimed the knacker. Half the tongue says sold for ox tongues is horses tongues. A knowing hand may always tell them, because they're rather longer and thinner. For my part, I like them just as well, every bit. And the flesh of the second sort of horses, that goes to supply the cats meat men in the swells neighborhoods, and the third sort that is altogether putrid and rotten is taken up by the cats meat men in the poor neighborhoods. And do you mean to say that there's a difference even in cats meat between the rich and the poor customers, demanded the landlord? Do I mean to say so? Repeated the knacker in a tone which showed that he was surprised at the question being asked. Well, of course I do. The poor may be poisoned and very often is too, for what the rich cares a fig. I can tell you more to some of the first-class horses meat and sound and good, remember, is made into what's called hung beef. Some is potted, some is sold to boarding houses around London, where they take in young gentlemen and ladies at very low rate, and some is disposed of, but no, I don't dare tell you. Yes, do tell us to the landlady in a coaxing tone. Do that's a good fellow, cried the landlord. Come tell us, exclaimed a dozen voices. No, no, I can't. I should get myself into a scrape perhaps to the knacker who was only putting a more keen edge upon the curiosity which he had excited, for he intended to yield all the time. We won't see a word, observed the landlady. And I'll stand a quorum of blue ruin, you added the landlord, with three outs, you know me and the missus. Well, if I must, I must, said the knacker with affected reluctance. The fact is, he continued slowly, as if he were weighing every word he uttered, some of the primus bits of the first-rape flesh that goes out of the knacker's yards of this west metropolis is sent to the workhouses. The workhouses ejaculated the landlady. Oh, what a whore! An abomination cried the landlord, filling three wine glasses with gin. It's God's truth, and now that I've said it I'll stick to it, said the knacker. It's a shame, a burning shame screamed a female voice. My poor old mother's in the union after having paid rates and taxes for four or two years, and if they make her eat horses flesh, I'd like to know whether this country is governed by savages or not. And my brother's in a workhouse too, said the poor decrepit old man, and he once kept his carriage and dined in company with George the Third at Guidehall, where he'd no end of turtle and venison. But like a daisy this is sad falling off, is he to come down to horse flesh in his old age. What of the use of all this here wine and a nonsense? Oh, exclaimed the knacker. Don't I tell you that good horse flesh answers all the purposes of beef and is eaten by the rich in the shape of sausages and tongues? What a use then of making a fuss about it. How do you suppose the sausage shops can afford to sell solid meat without bone at the price they do if they didn't mix it with horses flesh? They pay two pints a pound for the first class flesh, and so it must be good. Never mind, ejaculated a voice, it's a shame to give paupers only a few ounces of meat a week and let that be horses flesh. It's high time these things were put to an end. Why don't the people take their own affairs in their own hands? Come now, said the knacker, assuming a dictatorial heir and placing his arms at Kimball. Perhaps he ain't aware of good first class horse flesh is better than half the meat that's sold in certain markets. I shan't say which for the benefit of the poor. Now you tattle out on Sunday night on the Holloway Leverpool, Mile End and Hackney Roads and see the sheep and oxen and calves coming into London for the next morning's market. Numbers of the poor beasts fall down and die through sheer fatigue. They're flayed and cut up all the same for the butcher's market, and what do you think becomes of all the beasts that die of disease and so on in the fields? Do you suppose they're wasted? No such thing. They're all cut up for consumption. Just take a walk on Saturday night through a certain market after the gas is lighted, not before mind, and look at the meat which is marked cheap. You'll see beef at two pence, half penny a pound, and veal at three pence. But what sort of stuff is this? Diseased rotten. The butchers rub it over with fresh suet or fat, and that gives it a brighter appearance and a bitter smell. How so ever they can't prevent the meat from being quite thin, shrunk, poor and flabby upon the bone. I'll bear witness to the truth of all what you've been saying this last time to the butcher's lad stepping forward. Of course you can't exclaim the knacker casting a triumphant glance around him, and do you know he continued that half the disease is an illnesses which takes hold of us without any visible cause and which sometimes puzzles the doctors themselves? Comes from eating this bad meat that I've been talking about? Now tell me, ain't a bit out of good healthy horse that was killed in a regular way with the blood flowing better than a joint off an old cow that dropped down dead of the yellows in a field during the night and wasn't found so till the morning? With these words the knacker took his departure, leaving his hearers disgusted and dignified and astonished at what they heard. As the clock struck nine, the resurrection man and the cracksman entered the boozing kin. They were paired straight into the parlor and seemed disappointed at not finding there someone whom they evidently expected. He ain't come yet the young sparks of the cracksman and yet he had plenty of time to go home and get a change of linen and that like. Maybe he has turned into bed and had a good snooze observed the resurrection man. He is not so accustomed to remain up all night as we are. I think his head is regular turned with what he has seen in the great crib yonder. He seemed to give such exceeding vague answers to the questions we put to him as we walked through the park this morning. I heard say that the conversation of great people is very gammoning and that they can't always understand each other, so if young Holford has been listening to their fine talk is no wonder he got cranky. Humbug ejaculated the resurrection man sulkily. Let us have some egg flip and we'll wait for him. If he comes he shall give us all the information we want and if he doesn't we will lay wait for him, carry him off to the crib and let the mummy take care of him till he chooses to speak. Yes, that'll be the best plan to the cracksman, but don't you think it very wise thing that he wants to have the whole business to himself? That's just what I do think answered the resurrection man. He'll find himself mistaken though, I rather fancy. So do I echoed the cracksman, but let's have this egg flip. With these words he ordered the beverage and in due time a court pot filled with the inviting compound with a foaming head and exhaling a strong odor of spices was brought in by a paralytic waiter who had succeeded the ship shot girl mentioned on a former occasion. Good stuff this said the cracksman smacking his lips. I wonder whether poor buffer has got anything half so good this morning. What's today? Oh, Friday mused the resurrection man as he sipped the quantum of flip from the tumbler with a relish equal to that events by his companion. Let's see, what's the fair today in clerk and well prison? Lord, don't you recollect all that, cried the cracksman in taking a piece of chalk from his pocket. He wrote the dietary table of clerk and well new prison upon the wall. That's a nice allowance for a strong healthy fellow exclaimed the resurrection man contemptuously. One month upon that will make his flesh as soft and flabby as possible. It's a shame by heavens to kill human beings by inches in that way. What a precious fool the buffer has made of himself so the cracksman after a pause. The buffer ejaculated the paralytic waiter who had been affecting to dust a table as an excuse to linger in the room with the chance of obtaining an invitation to partake of the flip. Is anything wrong with the buffer? Safe and lavender answered the cracksman wooly and 10 to one he'll swing for it. My eyes I'm very sorry to hear that cried the waiter. He was a capital fellow and never took the change when he gave me a joy to pay for his three penneth of rum in the morning. Well he's done it brown at last in all events to continue the cracksman. What has he done as the waiter? Why? What he isn't likely to have a chance of doing again answered the cracksman. I suppose you know that he married Malfair, the sister of him, as was killed by Bill Bolter at the old house in Chick Lane three years or so ago. Well he had a child by mole and a very pretty little critter it was. Even a fellow like me that can't be supposed to have much feeling for that kind of thing used to love to play with that little child. It was a girl and I never did see such sweet blue eyes and soft flaxy hair. The moment she was born off goes the buffer and subscribes to half a dozen bearing clubs. The secretaries and treasures all was exceeding glad to see him, took his tin and put down his name. Those are about two years ago. He kept up all his payments regular and he was also precious regular in keeping up such a system of ill treatment that the poor little things seemed sinking under it. Now as I said before I'm not the most remarkable as man in London for feeling but I'm bloated if I couldn't have cried sometimes to see the way in which the buffer and mole would use that child. I've seen it standing in a pail of cold water stark naked in the middle of winter with the ice was floating on the top and because it cried, his mother would take a rope half an inch thick and belabor the poor back. Then they have starved it and made it sleep on the bare boards but the little thing loved its parents for all that and when the buffer beat mole. I've seen that poor child creep up to her and saying such a soft tone don't cry mother, perhaps all the reward it got for that good weltering. How the child stood it all so long I can't say. The buffer thought she never would die so he determined to put an end to it at once and yet he didn't want money for we had had some good things lately with what one thing of another. All I know is that he first takes the little child and flings it down the stairs. He then puts it to bed and sends his wife to the doctors for some medicine and into the medicine he pours some london. The little creature went to sleep smiling at him and never woke, no more. This was two days ago. Yesterday the buffer goes around to all the bearing clubs and gives notice of the death of the child but somehow or another the thing got wind. One of the secretaries of a club takes a surgeon along with him to the buffer's lodgings and it's all blown. Well I never heard of such a rig as that before exclaimed the waiter. As for the rig observe the cracksman cruelly that is common enough. Ever since the burial societies and funeral clubs come into existence no think has been more common than these child murders. A man in full work can very well afford to pay a few half pence a week to each club that he subscribes to even supposing he puts his name down to a dozen. Then those who don't kill their children ride out do so by means of exposure neglect in all kinds of horrible treatment and so it is easy enough for a man to get 40 or 50 pounds this way in one sweep. So it is, so it is to the waiter. Burial clubs afford a regular premium upon the murder of young children. All London is a wonderful place. Everything of that kind is invented and got up first in London. I really do think that London beats all other cities in the world for matters of that sword. Look for instance what a blessed thing it is that the authorities seldom or never attempt to alter what they call low neighborhoods. Why is the low neighborhoods that make such a gentleman as you two and affords you the means of concealment and existence and occupation and everything else? Supposing there was no boozing kins and pattered cribs like this. How would such gentlemen as you two get on? All London is a fine place, a very fine place and I hope I never shall live to see the day when it will be spoiled by improvement. Come there's a good deal of reason in all that exclaimed the resurrection man. Here my good fellow he added turning to the waiter drink this tumbler of egg hot for your fine speech. The waiter did not require to be asked twice but imbibed the smoking beverage with an infinite satisfaction to himself. I never heard anything more true than what this fellow has just said. Observed the resurrection man to his companion in Inquidity. Only suppose now that all saints guile, clerk and well, Bethnael green and the mint were improved as they call it where the devil would crime take refuge. For no one knows better than you and me that we should uncommon soon have give up business if we hadn't dark and narrow streets to operate in, cribs like this kin to meet and plan in, and the low courts and alleys to conceal ourselves in. Lord, what indeed would London be to us if it was all like the West End? And so the fact is that the authorities very kindly leave in existence and undisturbed those very places which give birth to you gentlemen in the first instance of the waiter and sustain you afterwards. Well, you ain't very far wrong old fellow exclaimed the craxman, but blow me if this ever struck me before. Nor me either said the resurrection man till the flunky started the subject. Ah! There's a many things that has struck me since I've been in the waiter line in flash houses of this kind observed the paralytic attendant shaking his head solemnly, but one curious fact I've noticed, which is, that in nine cases out of ten the laws themselves make men take too bad ways and then punish them for acting under their influence. I don't understand that said the craxman. I do, though, exclaimed the resurrection man and I mean to say that the flunky is quite right. We ain't born bad, something then must have made us bad. If I've been in the Duke of Wellington's place I should be an honorable and upright man like him and if he had been in my place he would be what I am. Of course he would echo the waiter. Now I understand, cried the craxman. I tell you what we'll do said the resurrection man after a few moments reflection. This devil of a holfer doesn't appear to hurry himself and the rain has just begun to fall on torrents. So we'll have another quarter flip and the flunky shall sit down with us and enjoy it and I'll just tell you the history of my own life by way of passing away the time. Perhaps you may find added the resurrection man that it helps to bear out the flunky's remark that in nine cases out of ten the laws themselves make us take too bad ways and then punish us for acting under their influence. The second supply a flip was procured. The door of the parlor was shut. Room was made for the paralytic waiter near the fire and the resurrection man commenced his narrative in the following manner. End of Chapter 61 Recording by Judy Guinen Chapter 62 of the Mysteries of London This is a liverbox recording. All liverbox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit liverbox.org Recording by Judy Guinen The Mysteries of London by George Reynolds Chapter 62 I was born thirty-eight years ago near the village of Warmer in Kent. My father and mother occupied a small cottage or rather hovel made of the wreck of a ship upon the sea coast. Their ostensible employment was that of fishing, but it would appear that smuggling and body-snatching also formed a portion of my father's evocations. The rich inhabitants of Warmer in Deal encouraged him in his contraband pursuits by purchasing French silks, gloves, and the sense of him. The gentlemen, moreover, were excellent customers for French brandy and the ladies for dresses and perfumes. The clergyman of Warmer and his wife were our best patrons in this way and in consequence of the frequent visits they paid our cottage, they took a sort of liking to me. The parson made me attend the national school regularly every Sunday, and when I was nine years old he took me into his service to clean the boot and knives, brush the clothes, and so forth. I was then very fond of reading and used to pass all my leisure time in studying books which he allowed me to take out of his library. This lasted till I was twelve years old when my father was one morning arrested on a charge of smuggling and taken to Dover Castle. The whole neighborhood expressed their surprise that a man who appeared to be so respectable could turn out such a villain. The gentlemen who used to buy brandy of him talked loudly of the necessity of making an example of him. The ladies who were accustomed to purchase gloves, silks, and odour cologne wondered that such a desperate ruffin should have allowed them to sleep safe in their bed. And of course the clergyman and his wife kicked me ignominiously out the door. As all things of this nature create a sensation in a small community, the parson preached a sermon upon the subject on the following Sunday, choosing for his text, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's and earnestly enjoining all his congregation to unite and deprecating the conduct of a man who had brought disgrace upon a neighborhood till then famed for its loyalty, its morality, and its devotion to the laws of the country. My father was acquitted for want of evidence and returned home after having been in prison six months waiting for his trial. In the meantime, my mother and myself were compelled to receive parish relief. Not one of the fine ladies and gentlemen who had been the indirect means of getting my father into a scrape by encouraging him in his illegal pursuits would notice us. My mother called upon several, but their doors were banged in her face. When I appeared at Sunday school the parson expelled me declaring that I was only calculated to pollute honest and good boys and the beetle thrashed me soundly for daring to attempt to enter the church. All this gave me a very strange idea of human nature and set me a thinking upon the state of society. Just at that period of ironed in the neighborhood was proved to be the owner of a smuggling vessel and to be pretty deep in the contraband business himself. He was compelled to run away an ex-checker process I think they call it issued against his property. And everything he possessed was swept away. It appeared that he had been smuggling for years and he had defrauded the revenue to an immense amount. He was a widower but he had three children, two boys and a girl at school in the neighborhood. Oh then what sympathy was created for these poor, dear bereaved little ones as the parson called them in a charity sermon which he preached for their benefit and there they were marshalled into the parson's own pew by the beetle and the parson's wife wept over them subscriptions were got up for them. The mayor of deal took one boy, the banker another and the clergyman's wife took charge of the girl and never was seen so much weeping and consoling and compassion before. Well, at that time my mother had got so thin and weak and ill through want and affliction that her neighbors gave her the name of Mummy which she has kept ever since. My father came home and was shunned by everybody. The baronettes uncle happened to die at that period and left his nephew an immense fortune. The baronette paid all the fine settled its checker matters and returned to Walmer. A tronful reception awaited him balls, parties, concerts, the routes took place in honor of the event and the mayor, the banker and the clergyman and his wife were held up as the patterns of philanthropy and humanity. Of course the baronette rewarded them liberally for having taken care of his children in the hour of need. This business again sent me a thinking and I began to comprehend that birth and station made an immense difference in the views that the world adopted of mince actions. My father who had only heagled and figgled with smuggling affairs upon a miserly small scale was set down as the most atrocious monster unhung because he was one of the common herd. But the baronette who had carried on a systemic contraband trade to an immense amount was looked upon as a martyr to tyrannical laws because he was one of the upper classes and possessed a title. So my disposition was soured by these proofs of human injustice at my very entrance upon life. Up to this period in spite of the contemplation of the lawless trade carried on by my father I had been a regular attendant at church and at the sunny school and I declare most solemnly that I never went to sleep at night nor commenced my morning avocations without saying my prayers. But when my father got into trouble the beetle kicked me out of the church and the parson drove me out of the school and so I began to think that if my religion was only serviceable and available as long as my father remained unharmed by the law it could not be worth much. From that moment I never said another prayer and never opened a bible or prayer book. Still I was inclined to labor to obtain an honest livelihood and I employed my father upon my knees not to force me to assist in his proceedings of smuggling and body snatching to both which he was compelled by dire necessity to return the moment he was released from jail. He told me I was a fool to think of living honestly as the world would not let me but he added that I might make the trial. Pleased with this permission and sincerely hoping that I might obtain some occupation however menial which would enable me to eat the bread of honest toil I went round to all the farmers in the neighborhood and offered to enter their service as a plow boy or stable boy. The moment they found out who I was they won and all turned me away from their doors. One said like father like son another asked if I was mad to think that I could thus thrust myself into an honest family a third laughed in my face a fourth threatened to have me taken up for wanting to get into his house to commit infelony. A fifth swore that there was gallows written upon my continents. A sixth ordered his men to loosen the bulldog at me and a seventh would have had me ducked in his horse pond if I had not run away. Disparated but not altogether despairing I returned home. The following day I walked into deal which almost joins Walmer and called to several tradesmen's shops to inquire if they wanted an errand boy. My reception by these individuals was worse than which I had met at the hands of the farmers. One asked me if I thought he would run the risk of having his house indicted as the receptacle for thieves and vagabonds. A second pointed to his children and said do you suppose I want to bring them up in the road to the gallows? A third locked up his till in a fright and threatened to call a constable and a fourth lashed me severely with a horse whip. Still I was not totally disheartened. I determined to call upon some of those ladies and gentlemen who had been my father's best customers for his contraband articles. One lady upon hearing my business seized hold of the poker with one hand in her salt bottles with the other. A second was nearly fainting and rang the bell for her maid to bring her some odicolone, the very odicolone which my father had smuggled for her. A third begged me with tears in her eyes to retire or my very suspicious appearance would frighten her lapdog into fits. And a fourth an old lady who was my father's best customer for French brandy held up her hands to heaven and employed the Lord to protect her from all Sabbath breakers, profane swears and drunkards. Finding that I had nothing to expect from the ladies I tried the gentleman who had been a custom to patronize my father previous to his misfortune. The first swore at me like a trooper and assured me that he'd always prophesize I should go wrong. The second spoke civilly and regretted that his excellent advice had been thrown away upon my father whom he had vainly endeavored to avert from his wicked courses. It was for smuggling things for this gentleman that my father had been arrested. And the third made no direct answer but shook his head solemnly and wondered what the world was coming to. I was now really reduced to despair. I, however, resolved to try some of the very poorest tradesmen in the town. By this miserable creatures I was received with compassion and interest and my case was fully comprehended by them. Some even gave me a few half-pence and one made me sit down and dine with him his wife and his children. They, however, one and all declared that they could not take me into their service for if they did they would be sure to offend all their customers. Thus was it that the overbearing conduct and atrocious tyranny of the more wealthy part of the community compelled the poor portions to smother all sympathy in my behalf. A sudden thought now struck me. I resolved to call next day upon the very baronet who had himself suffered so much in consequence of the customs laws. Accelerated by the new hope awakened within me I repaired on the following morning to the splendid mansion which he now inhabited. I was shown into a magnificent room which he received me lounging before a cheerful fire. He listened very patiently to my tale and then spoke as nearly as I can recollect as follows. My good lad, I have not the slightest doubt that you are anxious to eat the bread of honesty as you very properly express it, but that bread is not within the reach of everybody and if we were all to pick and choose in this world, my God, what would become of us? My dear young man, I occupy a prominent position amidst the gentry in these parts and I have also at duty to fulfill towards society. Society has condemned you, unheard I grant you. Nevertheless, society has condemned you. Under these circumstances I have no alternative but to decline taking you into my service and I must more over request you to remember that if you are ever found laudering upon my grounds I shall have you put in the stocks I regret that my duty to society sunspots thus to act. You may concede with what feelings I heard this long tirade. I was literally confounded and retired without venturing upon a remonstrance. I knew not what course to adopt to return home and inform my parents that I could obtain no work was to lay myself under the necessity of becoming a smuggler and body snatcher at once. As a desperate resource I thought of calling upon the clergyman and explaining all my sentiments to him. I hoped to be able to convince him that although my father was bad or supposed to be bad yet I had poor advice in all his shapes and was anxious only to pursue honest courses. As a Christian minister he could not I imagine be so uncharitable as to infer my guilt and consequence of that on my parent and accordingly to him did I repair. He had just returned to his own house from a funeral and was in a hurry to be off on a shooting excursion for he had on his sporting gar beneath his surplus. He listened to me with great impatience and asked if my father still pursued his contraband trade. Seeing that I hesitated how to reply he exclaimed turning his eyes up to heaven. Speak the truth young man and shame the devil. I answered in the affirmative and he then said carelessly well go and speak to my wife she will act in the matter as she chooses. Rejoiced at this hopeful turn in the proceeding I sought his lady as I was desired. She heard all I had to say and then observed not for worlds could I receive you into my house again. But if your father has any soaks and gloves very cheap and very good I do not mind purchasing them and remember she added as I was about to depart. I do not want these things I only offer to take them for the purpose of doing you a service. My motive is purely a Christian one. I returned home well said my father what luck this morning. None I replied. And what do you mean to do lad to become a smuggler a body snatcher or anything else that you choose was my reply and the sooner we begin the better for I am sick and tired of being good. So I became a smuggler and a resurrection man. You have heard perhaps that deal is famous for its boatsmen and pilots. It is also renowned for the beauty of the sailors daughters. One of those lovely creatures captivated my heart for I can even talk sentimentally when I think of those times and she seemed to like me in return. Her name was Catherine Price. Kate Price as she was called by her acquaintance and a prettier creature the sun never shown upon. She was good and virtuous too and she alone understood my real disposition which even now that I bad embarked in lawless pursuits still panted to be good and virtuous also. At this time I was 19 and she was one year younger. We loved in secret and we met in secret for her parents would not for one moment have listened to the idea of our union. My hope was to obtain a good sum of money by one desperate venture in the contraband line and run away with Kate to some distant part of the country where we could enter upon some way of business that would produce us an honest livelihood. This hope sustained us. At this time there were a great many sick sailors in Deal Hospital and numerous funerals took place in the burial ground of that establishment. My father and I determined to have up a few of the corpse for we always knew where to dispose of as many subjects as we could obtain. By these means I proposed to raise enough money to purchase in France the articles that I meant to smuggle into England and thereby obtain the necessary funds for carrying out the plans upon which Kate and myself were resolved. Good luck attended upon my father and myself in respect to the body-snatching business. We raised 30 pounds and with that we set sail for France in the boat that we always hired for our smuggling expeditions. We landed in Calasse and made our purchases. We bought an immense quantity of brandy at 10 pence a quart, gloves at 8 pence a pair and three watches at 2 pound 10 each and some oldy cologne proportionally cheap. Our 30 pounds we calculated would produce as 120. We put out to see again in about 10 o'clock at night the wind was blowing stiff from the northeast and by the time we had been an hour at sea it increased to a perfect hurricane. Never shall I forget that awful night. The entire ocean was white with foam but the sky above was as black as pitch. We weathered the tempest until we reached the shore about a mile to the southward of Wilmer, a place called Kingston. We touched the beach I thought everything was safe. A huge bellow broke over the stern of the lugger and in a moment the boat was a complete wreck. My father left on shore from the bow at the instant this catastrophe took place. I was swallowed up along with the ill-fated bark. I was however an excellent swimmer and I combatted and fought and struggled with the ocean as a man would rustle with a savage animal that held him in his grasp. I succeeded in gaining the beach but so weak and enfeebled was I that my father was compelled to carry me to our hobo close by. I was put to bed, a violent fever seized upon me. I became delirious and for six weeks I lay tossing upon a bed of sickness. At length I got well. But what hope remained for me? We were totally ruined so was the poor fisherman whose boat was wrecked upon that eventful night. I wrote a note to Kate to tell her all that had happened and to make an appointment for the following Sunday evening that we might meet and talk over the altered aspect of affairs. Scarcely had I dispatched the letter to the care of Kate's sister-in-law who was in our secret and managed our little correspondence when my father came in and asked me if I felt myself well enough to accompany him on a little expedition that evening. I replied in the affirmative. He then told me that a certain surgeon for whom we did business and who resided in deal required a particular subject for which had been buried that morning in Walmer Churchyard. I did not ask my father any more questions but that night I accompanied him to the burial ground between 11 and 12 o'clock. The surgeon had shown my father the grave in the afternoon and we had a cart waiting in the lane close by. The church is in a secluded part surrounded by trees and some little distance from any habitations. There was no danger of being meddled with moreover we had often operated in the same ground before. To work we went in the usual manner. We shoveled out the soil, broke open the coffin, thrust the corpse into a sack, filled up the grave once more and carried our prize safe off to the cart. We then set off at a round pace toward deal and arrived at the back door of the surgeon's house by two o'clock. He was up and waiting for us. We carried the corpse into the surgery and laid it upon a table. You are sure it's the right one to the surgeon. It is the body from the grave that you pointed out answered my father. The fact is, resumed the surgeon, that this is a very peculiar case. Six days ago a young female rose in the morning in perfect health. That evening she was a corpse. I opened her and found no traces of poison, but her family would not permit me to carry the examination any further. They did not wish her to be hacked about. Since her death came some love letters have been found in her drawer, but there is no name attached to any of them. I began to feel interested. I scarcely knew why, but this was the manner in which I was accustomed to write to Kate. The surgeon continued, I am therefore anxious to make another and more searching investigation than on the former occasion into the cause of death. But I will soon satisfy myself that this is indeed the corpse I mean. With these words the surgeon tore away the shroud from the face of the corpse. I cast an anxious glance upon the pale cold marble continent. My blood ran cold, my legs trembled, my strength seemed to have failed me. Was I mistaken? Could it be the beloved of my heart? Yes, that is Miss Price in the surgeon coolly. All doubt on my part was now removed. I had exhumed the body of her whom a thousand times I had pressed to my sorrowful breast, whom I had clasped to my aching heart. I felt as if I had committed some horrible crime, a murder, or some other deadly deed. The surgeon and my father did not notice my emotions but settled their accounts. The medical man then offered us each a glass of brandy. I drank mine with avidity and then accompanied my father from the spot, uncertain whether to rush back and claim the body or not, but I did not do so. For some days I wandered about scarcely knowing what I did and certainly not caring what became of me. One morning I was roving amidst the fields when I heard a loud voice exclaim. I say you fellow there open the gate will you? I turned around and recognized the baronet on horseback. He had a large hunting whip in his hand. Open the gates that I and whom for? Whom for repeated the baronet why for me to be sure fellow then open it yourself said I. The baronet was near enough to me to reach me with his whip and he dealt me a stinging blow across my face. Maddened with pain and soured with vexation I leapt over the gate and attacked the baronet with a stout ash stick which I carried in my hand. I dragged him from his horse and thrashed him without mercy. When I was tired I walked quietly away. He roaring after me that he would be avenged upon me as sure as I was born. The next day I was arrested and taken before a magistrate. The baronet appeared against me and to my surprise swore that I had assaulted him with view to rob him and that he had the greatest difficulty in protecting his person watch. I told my story and showed the mark of the baronet's whip across my face. The justice asked me if I could bring forward any witnesses to character. The baronet exclaimed, How can he? He has just been in dover castle for smuggling. Never I cried emphatically. Well your father has then said the baronet this I could not deny. Oh that's just the same thing cried the magistrate and I was committed to jail for the trial of the next maid stone of sizes. For three months I lay in prison. I was not however completely hardened yet. Nor did I associate with those who drank and sang and swore. I detested vice in all its shapes and I longed for an opportunity to be good. It may seem strange to you who know me now to hear me speak thus. But you were not aware of what I was then. I was tried and found guilty. The next two years of my life I pasted the hulks at Woolwich dressed in dark gray and wearing a chain around my leg. Even then I did not grow so corrupted but that I sought for work the moment I was set at liberty again. I resolved not to return home to my parents for I detested the ways into which they had led me. Turned away from the hulks one fine morning at ten o'clock without a farthing in my pocket nor the means of obtaining a morsel of bread. My prospects were miserable enough. I could not obtain any employment at Woolworth. Evening was coming on and I was hungry. Suddenly I thought of enlisting. Pleased with this idea I went to the barracks and offered myself as a recruit. The regiment station there was about to embark for the East Indies in a few days and wanted men. Although certain of being banished as it were to the most unhealthy climate for twenty-one years I preferred that to the life of a vagabond or criminal in England. The sergeant was delighted with me because I could read and write well but the surgeon would not pass me. He said to me you have either been half-starved for a length of time or you have undergone a long imprisonment for your flesh is as flabby as possible. Thus was this hope destroyed. Now what pains had the law taken to make me good even supposing that I was really bad at the time of my condemnation? The law locked me up for two years, half-starved me and yet exacted from me much more labor as a strong healthy man could it performed? Then the law turned me out into the wide world so weak reduced and feeble that even the last resource of the most wretched namely enlisting in the regimen bound for India was closed against me. Well, that night I wandered into the country and slept under a hedge. On the following morning I was compelled to satisfy the ravenous cravings of my hunger with Swedish turnips plucked from the fields. This food lay so cold upon my stomach that I felt ready to drop with illness, misery and fatigue. And yet in this Christian land even that morsel against which my heart literally heaved was begrudged me. I was not permitted to satisfy my hunger with the food of beasts. A constable came up and took me into custody for robbing the turnip field. I was conducted before a neighbouring justice of the peace. He asked me what I meant by stealing the turnips. I told him that I had fasted for 24 hours and was hungry. Nonsense, hungry, he exclaimed. I'd give five pounds to know what hunger is. You kind of fellows eat turnips by way of luxury you do. And not because you're hungry. I assured him that I spoke the truth. Well, why don't you go to work, he demanded. So I will, sir, with pleasure if you will give me employment, I replied. Me give you employment, he shouted. I wouldn't have such a fellow about me if he'd work for nothing. Where did you sleep last night? Under a hedge, sir, was my answer. I thought so, he exclaimed. A rug and a vagabond, evidently. And this excellent specimen of the great unpaid committed me fourth witch to the treadmill for one month as a rug and a vagabond. The treadmill is a horrible punishment. It is too bad even for those that are really rogues and vagabonds. The weak and the strong take the same turn without any distinction, and I have seen men fall down fainting upon the platform with the risk of having their legs or arms usmashed by the wheel through their sheer exhaustion. Then the miserable fare that one receives in prison renders him more fit for a hospital than for the violent labor of the treadmill. I had been two years at the hulks and was not hardened. I had been a smuggler in a body snatcher and was not hardened, but this one months imprisonment and spell at the treadmill did harden me and hardened me completely. I could not see any advantage in being good. I could not find out any inducement to be honest. As for a desire to lead an honorable life, that was absurd. How I laughed the idea to scorn and I swore within myself that whenever I did commence a course of crime I would not be an unsparing demon at my work. Oh how I then detested the very name of virtue. The rich look upon the poor as degraded reptiles that are born in infamy and cannot possibly possess a good instinct. I reasoned within myself. Let a rich man accuse a poor man before a justice, a jury, or a judge and see how quick the poor wretch is condemned. Their aristocracy hold the lower classes in whore and abhorrence. The legislature thinks that if it does not make the most grinding laws to keep down the poor the poor will rise up and commit the most unheard atrocities. In fact the rich are prepared to believe any infamy which is imputed to the poor. It was thus that I reasoned and I looked forward to the day of my release with a burning maddening drunken joy. That day came. I was turned adrift as before without a shelling without a crust. That alone was as bad as grinding the words rogue and vagabond upon my forehead. How could I remain honest even if I had any longer been inclined to do so when I could not get work and had no money, no bread, no lodging? The legislature does not think of all this. It fancies that all its duty consists in punishing men for crimes and never dreams of adopting measures to prevent them from committing crimes at all. But I now no more thought of honesty. I went out of prison and confirmed Ruffian. I had no money, no conscience, no fear, no hope, no love, no friendship, no sympathy, no kindly feeling of any sort. My soul had turned to the blackness of hell. The very first thing I did was to cut myself a good tough ash stick with a heavy knob at one end. The next thing I did was to break into the house of the very justice who had sentenced me to the treadmill for eating a raw turnip. And I feasted jovially upon the cold foul and ham which I found in his larder. I also drank success to my new career in a bumper of his final wine. This compliment was due him. He had made me what I was. I carried off a small quantity of plate, all that I could find, you may be sure, and took my departure from the house of the justice. As I was hurrying away from this scene of my first exploit, I passed by a vine, large barn, also belonging to my friend, the magistrate. I did not hesitate a moment what to do. I owed him a recompense for my month at the treadmill, and I thought I might as well add incendiary to my other titles of rogue and vagabond. Besides I longed for mischief, the world had persecuted me long enough, the hour of retaliation had arrived. I fired the barn and scampered away as hard as I could. I halted at a distance at about a half a mile and turned to look. A bright column of flame was shooting up to heaven. Oh, how happy did feel at that moment. Happy, this is not the word, I was mad intoxicated, delirious with joy. I literally danced as I saw the barn burning. I was avenged on the man who would not allow me to eat a cold turnip to save me from starving. That one cold turnip cost him dear. The fire spread and communicated with his dwelling-house, and there was no adequate supply of water. The barn, the stacks, the outhouses, the mansion were all destroyed. But that was not all. The only daughter of the justice, a lovely girl of nineteen was burnt to death. I read the entire account in the newspapers a few days afterwards. And the upper classes wondered that there are so many incendiary fires. My only surprise is that there are so few. All the lucifer match is a fearful weapon in the hands of the man whom the laws, the aristocracy, and the present state of society have ground down to the very dust. I felt all my power. I knew all my strength. I was aware of all my importance as a man. When I read of the awful extent of the misery and desolation which I had thus caused, oh, I was singly avenged. I now bethought me of punishing the baronet in the same manner. He had been the means of sending me, for two years, to the hawks at Woolwich, pleased with this idea I jogged merrily on towards Walmer. It was late at night when I reached home. I found my mother watching by my father's death bed and arrived just in time to behold him breathe his last. My mother spoke to me about decent interment for him. I laughed in her face. Had he ever allowed anyone to sleep quietly in his grave? No. How could he then hope for repose in the tomb? My mother remonstrated. I threatened to dash out her brains with my stout ash-stick and on the following night I sold my father's body to the surgeon who had autonomized porcate price. This was another vengeance on my part. Not many hours elapsed before I set fire to the largest barn upon the baronet's estate. I waited in the neighborhood and glutted myself with a view of the conflagation. The damage was immense. The next day I composed a song upon the subject which I have never since forgotten. You may laugh at the idea of me becoming a poet, but you know well enough that I received some trifle of education, that I was not a fool by nature, and that in early life I was fond of reading. The lines were these. The incendiary song. The Lucifer match, the Lucifer match, tis the weapon for us to wield, how bonnily burns up rick and thatch, and the crop just howls from the field. The proud may oppress the rich distress and drive us from their door, but they cannot snatch the Lucifer match from the hand of the desperate poor. The perch-prout squire and the tyrant peer and keep their game laws still, and the very glance of the overseer may continue to freeze and kill. The wealthy and great and the chiefs of state may tyrannize more and more, but they cannot snatch the Lucifer match from the hand of the desperate poor. Oh, give as bread is a piteous wail that is murmured far and wide, and echo takes up and repeats the tale but the rich man turns aside. The just as a piece may send his police to scour the country ore, but they cannot snatch the Lucifer match from the hand of the desperate poor. Then hurrah, hurrah for the Lucifer match to the weapon of despair, how bonnily blaze up barn and thatch the poor man's revenge is there. For the worm will turn on the feet that spurn, and surely a man is more. Oh, none can air snatch the Lucifer match from the hand of the desperate poor. The baronets suspected that I was the cause of the fire as I had just returned to the neighborhood and he had me arrested and taken before justice, but there was not a shadow of proof against me nor a pretense to keep me in custody. I was accordingly discharged with the admonation to take care of myself, which was as much to say, if I can find an opportunity of sending you to prison, I will. Walmer and his neighborhood grew loathom to me. The image of Kate Price constantly haunted me and I was more overshun by everyone who knew that I had been at the hulks. I accordingly sold off all the fishing tack on other traps and came up to London with old mummy. I need say no more. And there's enough of your history to set a man of thinking as claimed the waiter at the boozing-kin. There is indeed. Ah, I believe you, there is, observed the crax man draining the pot which had contained the egg-flip. The clock struck midday when Holford entered the parlor of the boozing-kin. End of Chapter 62 Recording by Judy Guinen Chapter 63 Well young blade, cried the craxman. You haven't kept us waiting at all, I suppose. And do you fancy that I could wake myself up again in a minute when I had once laid down down," demanded the lad soquely. "'Oh, bother to the laying down, Harry," said the craxman. "'Don't you think me and Tony wants to sleep as well as a strong, hearty young feller like you? And we haven't put Buff and Downey since night before last.' "'Well, never mind shafting about that,' cried their resurrection man impatiently. Then having dismissed the waiter, he continued, "'Now about this business at the palace. We must have no delay, and when we make appointments in future, they must be better kept. But I won't speak of this one now, because there are some allowance to be made for you as you were up to the best part of the night, and you ain't accustomed to it as we are. But to the point, how is this affair to be managed? I don't see how it is to be managed at all,' answered Holford firmly. "'The devil you don't,' cried the craxman. "'Then what was you doing all that time in the palace? Running a thousand wrists of being found out every minute. So we all do at times. And sneaking about at night time to find food. I think you managed to discover the right place for the grist,' said the resurrection man, his cadaverous continence wearing an ironical smile, for you must recollect that I found you in the pantry. And the pantry's a good neighborhood. It can't be far from where the plates kept observed the craxman. The plate is kept where no one can get at it,' said Holford. "'How do you know that, youngster? I overheard the servants count it, lock it up in a chest, and take it to the apartments of—of the Lord Steward, I think they call him. The deuce ejaculated the craxman in a tone of deep disappointment. Now I tell you what it is, young fellow,' said the resurrection man, "'I think that for some reason or another you're deceiving us. You think so,' cried the lad, "'and why should you fancy that I am deceiving you? Because your manners tell me so. In that case,' said Holford, rising from his seat, "'it is not of any use for us to talk any more upon the subject. By God it is of use, though, exclaimed the craxman, you shall tell us the truth by fair means or foul, and he produced from his pocket a clasp knife, the murderous blade of which flew open by means of a spring which was pressed at the back.' Holford turned pale and resumed his seat. "'Now you see that it is of no use to humbug,' said the resurrection man. Tell us the whole truth, and you will, of course, get your regulars out of the swag. You told me that the queen was going to Windsor in a day or two, and that was as much to say that the affair would come off then. I told you the queen was going to Windsor, and I tell you so again,' replied Holford. "'But I can't help it if they lock up the plate, and I don't know what else there is for you to carry off.' The resurrection man and the craxman exchanged glances of mingled rage and disappointment. They did not precisely believe what the lad told them, and yet they could not see any motive, which he was likely to have for misleading them, unless it were to retain all the profits of his discoveries in the palace for his own sole behoof. Now Holford, my good fellow, said the craxman, shutting up his clasp knife, and returning it to his pocket. If you fancy that you are able to go through this business alone and without any help, you are ducidly mistaken. I imagine no such thing, return, Holford, and to prove to you that I am convinced there is nothing to be got by the affair in any shape or way, do you and Tidgin's attempt it alone together. He found his way to the pantry as well as I did, and can tell you what he saw there. "'That a true,' said the resurrection man, apparently struck by his observation, so I suppose we must give the thing up as a bad job. I suppose we must,' added the craxman, grinding his teeth. But by God, if I thought this younger was humbugging us, I'd plant three inches of gold steel in him, come what would. Thank you for your kindness, at Holford, not without a shudder. Another time, get some person to act for you whose word you will believe, and now he continued turning to the resurrection man, pleased to recollect the terms we agreed upon, a third of all we could get, if successful, or five pounds for me in case of failure. Well I shall keep my word, returned the resurrection man. Blow me if I would, though, exclaimed the craxman fiercely. Yes, fair plays a jewel to the resurrection man, darting a significant glance at his companion. Then, feeling in his pocket, he added, Holford is entitled to his five pounds, and he shall have them, but curse me if I have enough in my pocket to pay him. I tell you what it is, my lad, he continued turning towards the young man. You must meet me somewhere this evening, and I'll give you the money. What will do, cried Holford, where shall I meet you? Where? Repeated the resurrection man, affecting to muse upon the question. Oh, I will tell you, you know the dark horse in Brick Lane's spittle fields. I have heard of it, but was never there. Well, meet me there to-night at nine o'clock, Harry, so the resurrection man in a kind tone as he could assume, and I'll tip you the five counters. At nine punctually, returned Holford. I would not press you, but I have lost my place in consequence of being absent all this time without being able to give any account to myself, and so I'm regularly hard up. I'm going to look after a situation up somewhere beyond Camden Town this afternoon, that I heard of by accident. But I'm afraid I shall not get it, as I shall give no reference for character, and even if I could, it would be to the public house where I was a pot boy, and a place I'm going to try for it is to clean boots and knives, and make myself generally useful in a gentleman's house. So I'm afraid that I'm not likely to get the situation. I hope you may, my lad, for your sake, cried the resurrection man. At all events the five quids will keep you from starving for the next two months to come, so mind and be punctual this evening at nine. I shall not fail, answered Holford, and with these words he departed. Well, blow me, if I can make out now what you're up to exclaim the cracksman, as soon as he and his companion and infamy were alone together. You never thought that I should be fool enough to give him five colders for doing nothing but humorous, said the resurrection man. No, no, catch a weasel asleep but not Tony Tidkins. Don't you see that he has been making fools of us? I remember what a devil of a hurry he was in to get me away from the palace, when I lighted upon him in the pantry, and altogether I'm convinced he's been doing his best to stall us off from the business. So I think, said the cracksman. Well, resumed the resurrection man, we'll just try what a few days in the pit under the staircase in my crib will do for him. I have mended up the hole that opens into the saw pit next door, and there is no chance of his escaping. We must make him drink a glass of the dark horse and drug the grog well, and we needed fear about being able to get him up into my street. Ah, now I understand you, observed the cracksman. Only see what it is to have a head like yarn. The pit will soon make him tell us the real truth, and, if not, if he remains obstinate, use the resurrection man, aloud. Why in that case? We shall know what to do with him, added the cracksman, and the two miscreants exchange glances of horrible significance. On the same day that the above conversation took place in the parlor of the boozing kin on Safon Hill, Mark Ham was seated in his library, with several books before him. His continence was pale and bore the traces of recent illness, and an air of profound melancholy reigned upon his handsome features. He endeavored to fix his attention on the volume beneath his eyes, but his thoughts were evidently far away from the subject of his studies. At length, as if to compose his mind, he turned abruptly towards his writing desk, and took thence a note which he had already perused a thousand times, and every word of which was indelibly stamped upon his memory. We shall suppose a traveller upon Sarah's burning desert, sinking beneath fatigue, and oppressed by thirst, the agony of which becomes maddening. Presently he reaches a well it is deep and difficult of access, nevertheless the traveller's life or death reposes at the bottom of that well. Even like Manor did Markham's only hope lie in that letter. No wonder, then, that he read it so often, no marvel that he referred to it when his mind was afflicted, and when the wing of his spirit was oppressed by the dense atmosphere of despair, and yet the contents of that letter were simple and lacronic enough. Richmond The Countess, Al Tyrone, presents her compliments to Mr. Markham, and begs to acknowledge Mr. Markham's letter of yesterday's date. The Countess expresses her most sincere thanks for a communication which prevented an arrangement that, under the circumstances disclosed, would have proved a serious family calamity. Yes, Isabella is saved, said Markham to himself, as his eyes wandered over the contents of that most welcome note which he had received some days previously. It is impossible to mistake the meaning of that last sentence. She is saved, and I have been the instrument of her salvation. I have rescued her from a union with a proliferate, an adventure, a man of infamous heart. Surely, surely, her parents will admit that I have paid back a portion of the debt of gratitude which their kindness imposed upon me. Yes, the Countess herself seems to hold out a hope of reconciliation. That note bids me hope it is more than coldly polite it is confidential. It gives me to understand the results of my own letter, denouncing the miscreate George Montag Greenwood. His continents brighten as he reasoned thus within himself, but in a few moments a dark cloud again displays that gleam of happiness. Enthusiastic visionary that I am, he murmured to himself, I construe common politeness into a ground of hope. I fancy that every bird I see, however ill-olmined, is a dove of promise, with an olive branch in its mouth. Alas, mine is a luckless fate, and God alone can tell what strange destinies yet await me. He rose from his chair and walked to the window. The rain which had poured down in torrents all morning had ceased, and the afternoon was fine and unusually warm for the early part of January. He glanced towards the hill whereupon two trees stood, and thought of his brother, that much-loved brother of whose fate he was kept so cruelly ignorant. While he was standing at the window, buried in profound thought, and with his eyes fixed upon the hill, he heard a light step near him, and in a moment Ellen Monroe was by his side. Do I intrude, Richard, she exclaimed. I knocked twice at the door, not receiving any reply. I imagined that there was no one here. I came to change a book, but you, you are thoughtful and depressed. I was meditating upon a topic which to me is always fraught with distressing ideas, answered Mark Ham. I was thinking of my brother. Your brother, ejaculated Ellen, and her continents became Ashley Payle. Yes, continued Richard, not observing her emotion. I would rather know the worst, if misfortunes have really overtaken him, than remain in this painful state of suspense. If he be prosperous, why would he stay away, if poor, why does he not seek consolation with me? Perhaps that Ellen hesitantly, perhaps he is, in reality, much better off than anyone who feels interested in him. Heaven knows, ejaculated Mark Ham, but are now you observed that I was melancholy and dispirited, and I have told you wherefore. Ellen, I must make the same charge against you. Against me cried the young lady with a start, while at the same time a deep blush suffused her cheeks. Yes, against you, continued Richard, now glancing towards her. You may think that I am joking, but I never was more serious in my life. For the few days that you have been in this house you have been subject to intervals of profound depression. I, repeated Ellen, the hue of her blushes, becoming more intensely crimson, as her glances sank confusively beneath those of Markham. Alas, Ellen, answered Richard, I have myself been too deeply initiated in the mysteries of adversity and sorrow, I have drunk too deeply of the cup of affliction, I have experienced too much bitter, bitter anguish not to be able to detect the presence of unhappiness in others. And by many signs, Ellen, I have discovered that you are unhappy. I speak to you as a friend, I do not wish to penetrate into your secrets, but if there be anything in which I can aid you, if there be ought within my poor services or my consuls may be rendered available, speak, command me. O Richard, cried Ellen, tears starting into her eyes, how kind, how generous of you to think of me, you who have already done so much for my father and myself. Were you not the companion in my childhood, Ellen, and should I not be you as a brother and you to me as a sister, let me be your brother then, and tell me how I can alleviate the weight of that unhappiness which is crushing your young heart. A brother, exclaimed Ellen most wildly, yes, you shall, you must be a brother to me, and I will be your sister, all there is consolation in that idea, then after a moment's pause she added, but the time is not yet come when I as a sister shall appeal to you as a brother for that aid which a brother alone can give, and until then ask me no more, speak to me no farther upon the subject I employ you. Ellen pressed Richard's hand convulsively and then hurried from the room. Wittingham had scarcely recovered from this astonishment into which these last words had thrown him, words which coming from the lips of a young and beautiful girl were fraught with additional mystery and interest when Wittingham entered the library. A young lad, Master Richard, said the old butler, has called about the situation which is vacated in our household. I took the precaution of leaving a word yesterday with the people at a public, a most doable, respectability called the servant's arms, where I call now and then when I go into town, and it appears that this young lad having called in there quite perspicuously this morning heard of the place. Let him step in, Wittingham, said Markham. I will speak to him, although to tell you the truth I do not admire a public house recommendation. Wittingham made no reply but opening the door exclaimed, Step in here, young man, step in here. And Henry Holford stood in the presence of Richard Markham. Wittingham retired. I believe you are in want of a young lad, sir, said Holford, to assist in the house. I am answered, Markham. Have you ever served in that capacity before? No, sir. If you would take me and give me a trial, I should feel very much obliged. I have neither father or mother and am totally dependent upon my own exertions. These words were quite sufficient to command the attention and sympathy of the generous hearted Richard. The lad was moreover of superior manners and well-spoken, and there was something in his appeal to Markham which was very touching. What have you been before, my good lad? To tell you the truth, sir, was the reply. I have been a simple pot boy in a public house. And of course the landlord will give you a character? Yes, for honesty and industry, sir, but—but what? I do not think it is of any use to apply to that landlord for a character because—because what, demanded Markham, seeing the young man again hesitated, if you can have a character for honesty and industry, you need not be afraid of anything else that could be said of you. The truth is, sir, answered Holford. I absented myself without leave, and remained away for two or three days. Then, when I returned this morning at a very early hour, I refused to give an account of my proceedings. That is the whole truth, sir, and if you would only give me a trial. There is something very straightforward and ingenious about you, said Markham. Perhaps you would have no objection to tell me how you were occupied during your absence. That, sir, is impossible, but I declare most solemnly that I did nothing for which I can reproach myself, unless, added Holford, it wasn't leading a couple of villains to believe that I would do a certain thing which I never once intended to do. Really, your answers are so strange, cried Richard, that I know not what to say to you. It, however, appears from your last observation that two villains tempted you to do something wrong, that you led them to believe you would fall into their plans and that you never meant to fulfill your promise. It is all perfectly true, sir. They proposed a certain scheme in which I was to be an agent. I accepted the office they assigned to me because it suited my disposition and promised to gratify my curiosity in a way where it was deeply interested. And how did you explain your conduct to the two men whom you speak of, inquired Richard, not knowing what to think of the young lad, but half-enclining to believe that his brain was affected? I invented certain excuses, sir, was Holford's reply, which completely dampened their ardor in the matter alluded to, and now, sir, will you give me a trial? I feel convinced you will, and I not thought so from the very beginning. I should not have spoken so freely as I have done. I am disposed to assist you. I am desirous to meet your wishes, said Markham. Still, your representations are rather calculated to awaken fears than clear up doubts concerning you. What guarantee can you offer that you will never see those two villains again? What security? Sir, said Holford, your own manner is so frank and kind, so very condescending indeed to a poor lad like me, that I would not deceive you for the world. I had promised to meet those two men tonight for the last time. To meet them again? Yes, sir, to receive the reward promised for the service which I undertook. Ah, young man, cried Markham, this is most imprudent, if not actually criminal, and where was this precious interview to take place? At the dark house, sir, the dark house ejaculated Markham. What, a low tavern in brick-laned spittle fields? The same, sir. And the names of the two men demanded Richard hastily. Their right names and those by which they are commonly known amongst their own set are very different, said Holford. How are they known? What are they called in their own infamous sphere? cried Markham, his impatience amounting almost to a fever-speak. I do not know whether I shall be doing rights at Holford hesitantly. Perhaps I've already told you too much. Speak, I say, cried Richard, taking Holford by the collar of his jacket. Speak! You do not know, you cannot guess, how necessary it is for me to have my present suspicions cleared up. Speak! I swear no harm shall happen to you. On the contrary, I will reward you, if it should turn out as I suppose. There is more. Who are these villains? They are called—what? Speak, speak! The resurrection man—ah!—and the cracksman. Then I am right. My suspicions are confirmed, ejaculated Markham, relinquishing his hold upon Holford's jacket, and throwing himself upon a chair. Sit down, my good lad, sit down. You and I have not done with each other yet. The young man appeared alarmed by Richard's exclamations and manners, and seemed undecided whether to remain where he was or attempt to escape. You have devined what was passing in the Laz bosom and hasten to reassure him. Sit down and fear nothing, I swear most solemnly, that no harm shall happen to you, be you who or what you may, for I cannot suppose that you are a participator in the crimes of these miscreates. You would not have come to me to tell me all this? Oh, no, Providence has sent you hither this day. Holford took a seat wondering how this extraordinary scene was to terminate. Are you aware of the pursuits of those two men whom you have named? I mean the full extent of the atrocity of their pursuits, demanded Richard, after a few moments' pause. I know that they are body snatchers and burglars, sir, answered Holford. Indeed it was a burglary of which they would have me be the instrument. But, oh, sir, believe me, I am incapable of such a crime, and the representations I have made to them have induced them to abandon all idea of it. And you are not aware, then, continued Richard, and they are more than body snatchers and burglars. More, sir? Repeated Holford, in a tone of unfaithful surprise. Oh, no, sir. How can they be more than that? They are more, far more rejoined, Markham, with a shudder. They are murderers. Murderers ejaculated Holford, starting from his chair with a mingled emotions of horror and alarm. Yes, murderers of the most diabolical and cold-blooded descriptions in Markham, but it's too long a tale to tell you now. Now this suffice for you to know that I was myself upon the point of becoming a victim to that most infernal amiscrites, the resurrection man, and I should conceive that the other whom you named is in all aspects as bad as he. Murderers, repeated Holford, his mental eyes fixed by a horrible and snake-like fascination, upon the fearful idea now suddenly engendered in his imagination. Murderers echoed Markham solemnly, and through you they must be surrendered up justice. Through me, cried Holford, yes, through you. If you be really imbued with such honorable feelings as you are now, professed, you will not hesitate for one moment in discharging this duty toward society. But it would be an odious act of treachery on my parts, at Holford. Let the men be what they may. If you manifest such a reluctance to rid the metropolis of two murderers, cried Markham angrily, I shall conceive that you are more intimately connected with them than you choose to admit. But if you imagine that these villains are more innocent than I describe them, if you fancy that some motive prompts me to exaggerate their infamy, I will tell you that no language can enhance their guilt. No vengeance be too severe. Have you not heard that men have disappeared in a most strange and mysterious manner within the last year? At the eastern end of the metropolis? Disappeared without leaving a trace behind them? Men who were not in the situation which hurries the despairing wretch onto suicide? You must have heard of this, if not, learn the dismal fact now from my lips. But the assassins, the dark and secret assassins of these numerous victims, are the wretches whom we shall this night lodge in the grasp of justice. As you will, sirs, at Holford, awe-inspired by this salmony of Markham's voice and the impressiveness of his manner, I was to meet them at the dark-house at nine o'clock. Do you take measures to secure them? Most assuredly I will return Markham emphatically. And when I think of all that you have told me my good lad, continued Richard, I am inclined to believe that you yourself would have been a victim to those wretches. Me, exclaimed Holford, horrors struck at the mere idea. Yes, such is now my conviction. They made an appointment with you at the dark-house to give you a sum of money, you say. Yes, sir. Foolish boy. Do such men pay their agents or accomplices who fail to fulfill their designs or who deceive them? Do such men part with their money so readily that money which they encounter so many perils to obtain? And that dark-house, the place of your appointment, that dark-house is in the immediate neighborhood of the headquarters of their crimes. Yes, there cannot be a doubt. You also were to be a victim. My God, what a fearful danger have I incurred, ejaculated Holford, shuddering from head to foot, as Markham thus addressed him, then, when he called to mine, the ferocity with which the cracksman menaced him with his knife, and the coaxing manner in which the resurrection man had engaged him to form the appointment for the evening, he felt convinced that the dread suspicion was a correct one. You say that the hour of meeting is fixed for nine, cried Markham after a few minutes' reflection. Yes, sir. And now let me thank you with the most unfaigned sincerity for having thus saved me from a dreadful death. Your kindness and condescension have led to a lengthy conversation between us, and accident, as made me reveal to you those particulars which have led you to form the conclusion relative to the fate destined for myself. You must not imagine for a moment that I would leak with such villains in any of their diabolical plans. No, sir, I would sooner be led forth to the place of execution this minute. Although I consented to do their bidding in one respect, I repeat that I had my own curiosity to gratify, that is my own inclinations to serve, but when they wished to make me their instrument and tool and forwarding their unholy motives, I shrank back and dismayed. Oh, yes, sir. Now I comprehend the entire infamy of those men's characters. I see what a fearful abyss I have escaped. There was again something so sincere and so natural in the manner and emphasis of this young lad, that Markham surveyed him, with sentiments of mingled interest and surprise. Then all the thoughts of our hero were directed towards the one grand object he had in view, that of delivering a hoarder ruffians ever to justice. The gang may be more numerous than I imagine, said Markham. Indeed, I know that there are a third man and a hideous woman connected with those two assassins, whom you have already named. It will therefore be advisable to lay such a trap that will lead to the capture of them all. Oh, by all means, sir, exclaimed Holford enthusiastically, I do not wish to show them any mercy now. We have no time to lose. It is now four o'clock, said Markham, and we must arrange the plan of proceeding with the police. You will accompany me on this enterprise. Mr. Markham returned Holford respectfully but firmly. I have no objection to aid you in any shape or way in capturing these miscreates and rooting out their headquarters. But I must beg of you not to place me in a position where I shall be questioned how I came to make this appointment for tonight with those two wretches. It would compel me to make a revelation of the manner in which I employed my time during the last few days, and that, for certain reasons, I could not do. Markham appeared to reflect profoundly. I do not see how your presence can be dispensed with, he observed, at the expiration of some minutes. In order to discover the exact spot where their murders dwell, it will be advisable for you to allow yourself to be in vagal thither, and myself and the police would be close behind you. Oh, never, never, sir, cried Holford, turning deadly pale. Were you to miss us only for a moment, or were you to force an entrance a single instant too late, my life would be sacrificed to those wretches. True, true, said Markham, it would be too great a risk in a dark night in narrow streets, and with such desperadoes as those. No, I must advise some other means to detect the din of this vile gang, but first of all I must communicate with the police. You can remain here until my return. Tomorrow inquiry will be made relative to your honesty in industry, and those points satisfactorily ascertained I will take you into my service, without asking any farther questions. Holford expressed his gratitude for this kindness on the part of Markham, and was then handed over to the care of Wittingham. Having partaken of some hasty refreshment and armed himself with a brace of pistols in preparation for his enterprise, Richard proceeded with all possible speed into London. CHAPTER 65 The parlor of the dark house was as usual filled with a very tolerable sprinkle of queer-looking customers. One would have thought, to look at their beards, that there was not a barber in the whole district of the Tower Hamlets, and yet it appears to be a social peculiarity, that the lower the neighborhood the more numerous the shaving shops. Amongst the very rich classes nobles and gentlemen are shaved by their filets, the males of the middle-grade shave themselves, and the men of the lower orders are shaved at barber-shops. Hence the immense number of party-colored poles projecting over the pavement of miserable and dirty streets, and the total absence of those signs in wealthy districts. The guests in the dark house parlor formed about as pleasant an assemblage of scamps as one could wish to behold. The establishment was a notorious resort for thieves and persons of the worst character, and no one who frequented it thought it worthwhile to shroud his real occupation beneath an air of false modesty. The conversation in the parlor, therefore, usually turned upon the tricks and exploits of the thieves frequenting the place, and many entertaining autobiographical sketches were in this way delivered. Women often constituted a portion of the company in the parlor, and they were invariably the most noisy and quarrelsome of all the guests. Whenever the landlord was compelled to call in the police to have a clearance of the house, a proceeding to which he only had recourse when his guests were drunk and penniless, and demanded supplies of liquor upon credit, a woman was sure to be at the bottom of the row, and a varigal of spittle fields would think no more of smashing every window in the house, or dashing out the landlord's brains with one of his own preter pots, then tossing off a tumbler of raw gin without winking. On the evening of which we are riding there were several women in the parlor of the dark house. These horrible females were the blow-ins of the thieves frequently in the house, and the principal means of disposing of the property stolen by their paramours. They usually ended by betraying their lovers through the police in fits of jealousy, and yet, by some strange infatuation on the part of those lawless men, the women who acted in this way speedily obtained fresh husbands upon the organic system. For the most part, these females were disfigured by intemperance, and their conversation is far more revolting than that of the males. Oh, there is no barbarism in the whole world, so truly horrible and ferocious, so obscene and shameless as that which is found in the poor districts of London. Alas, what a wretched mockery it is to hold grand meetings in Exeter Hall, and proclaim, with all due pomp and ceremony, how many savages in the far off islands of the globe have been converted to Christianity, when here at home, under our very eyes, even London itself swarms with infidels of a more dangerous character, how detestable it is for philanthropy to be exercised in clothing, negroes, or red men, thousands of miles distant, while our own poor, or cold and naked, are very doors, how monstrously absurd to erect twelve new churches in Bethel Green, and withhold the education that would alone enable the poor to appreciate the doctrines enunciated from the dozen of freshly built pulpits. But to return to the party of the dark house, in one corner sat the resurrection man and the cracks man, each with a smoking glass of gin and water before him. They mingled but little in the conversation, contending themselves with laughing and approval at anything good that fell upon their ears, and listening to the discourse that took place around them. Now come, tell us, Joe, said a woman with eyes like saucers, hair like a bundle of toe, and teeth like dominoes, and addressing herself to a man who is dressed like a coal-heaver. Tell us, Joe, how you come to be a prig. Ah, do, Joe, they're a good fellow, echoed a dozen voices, male and female. Lore is simple enough, cried the man, thus appealed to, every poor devil must become a thief in time. That's what you say, Tony, whispered the cracks man to the resurrection man. Of course he must continue the coal-heaver, more particular than, as follows my old trade, for though I've got on the togs of a whipper, I ain't one no longer. The dress is convenient, that's all. The blue bottles don't twig, eh, cried the woman with the domino teeth. That's it, but you asked me how I come to be a prig, I'll tell you. My father was a coal-whipper, and had three sons. He brought us all up to be coal-whippers also. My eldest brother was drowned in the pool one night when he was drunk, after only drinking about two pots of the publican's beer. My other brother died of hunger in Cold Bathfield's prison, where he was sent there three months for taking home a bit of coal one night to his family, when he couldn't get his wages paid him by the publicans that hired the gang in which he worked. My father died when he was forty, and any one to have seen him would have fancied he was sixty-five at least, so broke down was he with hard work and drinking, but no coal-whipper lives to an old age, they all die off at forty, old men in the very prime of life. And why is that demanded, the large-toothed lady? Why not, repeated the man, because a coal-whipper isn't a human being, or if he is, he isn't treated as such, and so I've always thought he must be different from the rest of the world. How isn't he treated like anyone else? In the first place he doesn't get paid for his labor in a proper way, lapping swarms with low public houses the landlords of which act as middlemen between the owners of the colliers and the men that are hired to unload him, a coal-whipper ain't got employment direct from the captain of the collier, the working of the collier is farmed by them landlords I speak of, and the whipper must apply at their houses. Those whippers, as drinks the most always gets employment first, and whether a whipper chooses to drink beer or not is always sent there three times a day on board the colliers for the gangs. And my eye what stuff it is. Often and often we have thrown it away because we couldn't possibly drink it and must be queer liquor that a coal-whipper won't drink. I should think so too, but go on. While I used to earn from fifteen to eighteen shillings a week and out of that eight was always stopped for the beer. And if I didn't spend another two on Saturday night when I received the balance the landlord sent me down as a stingy fellow and put across again my name in his book. What was that for? Why not to give me any more work till he was either forced to do to want of hands, or I made it up with him by standing a crown bowl of punch. So what with one thing and another I had to keep myself, my wife, and three children on about seven or eight shillings a week after working from light to dark. And now your wife and children is better purited for, said the woman with the huge teeth. Yes, indeed, in the workers, answered the man sharply. So now you see what a coal-whipper's life is. He can't be a sober man, if he wishes to, because he must pay for a certain quantity of beer, and so, of course, he won't throw it away unless it's so bad he can't keep it on his stomach. And was that often the case? Often and often, well, he can't be a saving man because he had no chance of getting his wages under his own management. He is a publican's slave, the publican's tool and instrument. Negro slavery is nothing to it. No tyranny is equal to the tyranny of them publicans. And why isn't the plan altered? Ah, why? Who do the owners of the colliers or the people that the cargos consigned to care about the poor devils that unload? The publican's takes the unloading on contract and employs the whippers in such a way to get an enormous profit. Taco appealing to the owners, what do they care? There has been meetings got up to change the system and what's the consequence? Why them whippers as attended them became marked men never got no more employment and drowned themselves in despair or turned prigs like me. Ah, that's better than suicide. Well, I don't know now. But them meetings, as I was speaking of, got up deputations to the court of adamant and the matter was referred to the coal and corn committee and there was as usual a great talk and no thing done. Then an application was made to some minister I don't know which and he set back a letter with a seal as big as a crown piece just to say that he'd received the application and would give it his earliest attention. Some time passed away and no one noticed ever was taken of it in that quarter and so I suppose the minister's earliest attention meant tens or dozen years. What a shame to treat people so. It's only the poor that's treated so and now I think I've said enough to show why I turned prig like a many more whippers from the port of London. There isn't a more degraded oppressed and brutalized sediment in the world than the whippers. They're born with examples of drunken fathers of four their eyes and drunken fathers makes drunken mothers and drunken parents makes sons turn out thieves and daughters prostitutes and that of the existence of the coal whippers of whapping. It ain't their fault. They have an education and self command to refuse the drink that's forced upon them and that they must pay for and their sons and daughters shouldn't be blamed for turning out bad. How can they help it? And yet one reason the papers that the upper class is always a crying about the dreadful immorality of the poor. The laws, the laws you see Tony whispered the cracksman to his companion. Of course answered the resurrection man. Here we are in this room upwards of 20 thieves and prostitutes. I'll be bound to say that the laws of the state of society made 18 of them what they are. Nobody knows the miseries of a coal whippers life continued the orator of the evening, but him that's been in his self. He's always dirty, always lurking about public houses when not at work, always ready to drink, always in debt and always dissatisfied with his own way of living, which isn't however his fault. There's no hope for coal whippers or their families. The sons that don't turn out thieves must live the same terrible life of cart-horse labor and constant drinking with the certainty of dying old minute 40 and the daughters that don't turn out prostitutes marry whippers and draw down upon their heads all the whores and sorrows of the life I have been describing. Well I never knowed all this before. No, and there's a deal of misery of each kind in London that isn't known to them as dwells on the other kinds of richness. And if these things gets represented in Parliament the cry is, oh the people's always complaining they're never satisfied. Well you speak of each person knowing his own species of misery and being ignorant of the nature of the misery next door, said the young and somewhat prepossessing woman, but upon whose face in temperance andliciousness had made sad havoc. All I can say is that people see girls like us laughing and joking always in public, but they little know how we weep and moan in private. Drink, Jen, then, as I do, cried the woman with the large teeth. Ah, you know well enough, continued the young female who had previously spoken, that we do drink a great deal too much of that. My father used to sell jiggered gin in George Yard White Castle. And what the devil is jiggered gin, demanded one of the male guests. It is made from molasses, beer, and vitro. Lower everyone knows what jiggered gin is. Three wine glasses of it will make the strongest man mad drunk. I'll tell you one thing, continued the young woman, which you do not seem to know, that that is that the very, very poor people who are driven almost to despair and suicide by their sorrows are glad to drink this jiggered gin, which is all they can afford. For three half-pins they may have enough to send them raving. And then what do they think or care about their miseries? Ah, very true, said the coal whipper. I've heard this before. Well, my father sold that horrid stuff, resumed the young woman, and though he was constantly getting into trouble for it, he didn't mind. But the moment he came out of prison, he took to his old trade again. I was his only child, and my mother died when I was about nine years old. She was always drunk with the jiggered gin, and one day she fell into the fire and was burnt to death. I had no one then who had cared a thing for me, but used to run about in the streets with all the boys in the neighborhood. My father took in lodgers, sixteen or seventeen of us boys and girls all huddled together, used to sleep in one room, not near as so big as this. There was fifteen lodging houses of the same kind in George Yard at that time, and it was supposed to be about 275 persons used to sleep in those houses every night, male and female lodgers all pinging together. Every sheet, blanket, and bolster in my father's house was marked with stop thief in large letters. Well, at eleven years old I went upon the town, and if I didn't bring home so much money every Saturday night to my father, I used to be well thrashed with a rope's end on my bare back. I'll serve you right to a pretty girl like you. Ah, you may joke about it, but it was no joke to me. I would gladly have done anything in an honest way to get my livelihood. Like me, when I was young, whispered the resurrection man to his companion. Exactly! Let's hear what the gal has to say for herself, resume the cracksman. The lush has made her sentimental. She'll soon be crying drunk. But I was doomed, it seemed, continued the young woman, to live in this horrible manner. When I was thirteen or fourteen my father died, and I was then left to shift for myself. I moved down into Wapping, and frequented the long rooms belonging to the public houses there. I was then pretty well off, because the sailors that went to these places always had plenty of money, and was very generous. But I was one night suspected of hulk-hossing, and robbing a sailor, and though if I was on my deathbed I could swear I never had a hand in the affair at all. I was so blown upon that I was forced to shift my quarters. So I went to a dress-house in Ada Street, Hackney Road. Other immuniation I received there was bored and lodging, and I was actually a slave to the old woman that kept it. I was forced to walk the streets at night with a little girl following me to see that I did not run away, and all the money I received I was forced to give up to the old woman. While I was there several other girls were turned out of doors and left to die in ditches or on dung-hills because they were no longer serviceable. All this frightened me. And then I was so ill-used and more than half-starved, I was forced to turn out in all weathers, wet or dry, hot or cold, well or ill. Sometimes I have hardly been able to drag myself out of bed with sickness and fatigue, but no matter, out I must go. The rain perhaps pouring in torrents or the roads knee-deep in snow, and nothing but a thin cotton gown to wear. Winter and summer, always flaunting dresses, yellow, green and red, wet or dry, always silk stockings and thin shoes. Cold or warm, always short skirts and low body, with strict orders not to fasten the miserable scanty shawl over the bosom. And then the little girl that followed me about was a spy with wits as sharp as needles, impossible to deceive her. At length I grew completely tired of this kind of life, and so I gave the little spy the slip one fine evening. I was then sixteen and I came back to this neighborhood. But one day I met the old woman who kept the dress-house and she gave me in charge for stealing, wearing a peril, the clothes I had on my back when I ran away from her. Always the police, the police, the police, when the poor and miserable or concerned whispered the resurrection man to the cracksman. But did the inspector take the charge? demanded the coal-heaver. He not only took the charge, answered the unfortunate girl, but the magistrate next morning committed me for trial, although I proved to him that the clothes were bought with the wages of my own prostitution, while I was tried at the Central Criminal Court. And, of course, acquitted? No, found guilty. What by an English jury? I can show you the newspaper I have kept the report of the trial ever since. Then, by God, things are a thousand times worse than I thought they were, as ejaculated the coal-whipper, striking his clenched fist violently upon the table at which he was seated. But the jury recommended me to mercy, continued the unfortunate young woman, and so the recorder only sentenced me to twenty-one days' imprisonment. His lordship also read me a long lecture about the errors of my ways, and advised me to enter upon a new course of life. But he did not offer to give me a character, nor did he tell me how I was to obtain honest employment without one. That's the way with them beaks, cried one of the male inmates of the parlor. They can talk for an hour, but supposing you said to their recorder, my lord, will your wife take me into her service as a scholar-girl? He would have stared in astonishment at your impertinence. When I got out of prison resumed the girl who was thus sketching the adventures of her wretched life. I went into great Thitsfield Street. My new abode was a dress-house kept by French people. Every year the husband went over to France and returned with a famous supply of French girls, and in the meantime his wife decoyed young English women up from the country under pretense of obtaining situations as nursery governess and ladies' maids for them. Many of these poor creatures were the daughters of clergymen and half-pay officers and the marines. The moment a new supply was obtained by these mean circulars was sent around to all persons that was in the habit of using the house. Different sums, from twenty to a hundred pounds. Ah, I understand, to the coal-whipper, but did you ever hear say how many unfortunate girls there was in London? Eighty thousand, from Thitsfield Street I went into the Almory Westminster. The houses there are all occupied by fences, prigs, and gals of the town. And the Parsons of Westminster Abbey, who is the landlords of the houses, does no think to put them down to the coal-whipper? Not a bit, echoed the young girl with a laugh. We had capital fund in the house where I lived, dog-fighting, badger-biting, and drinking all day long. The police never visits the Almory. Of course not, because it's the property of the Parsons they wouldn't be so rude. This coarse jest was received with a shout of laughter. And the health of the dean in chapter of Westminster was drunk amongst a porous appraise by the thieves and loose women assembled in the dark-house parlor. The causes which produce prostitution are as follows. Natural causes, literous of inclination, irritability of temper, pride and love of dress, dishonesty and desire of property, indolence, accidental causes, seduction, inconsiderate and ill-sorted marriages, inadequate rumination for female work, want of employment, intemperance, poverty, want of proper looking after their servants on the part of masters and mistresses, ignorance, bad example of parents, harsh and unkind treatment by parents and other relations, attendance on evening dancing schools and dancing parties, theater going, the publication of improper works, an obscene prince, the continent in reward given to vice, the small encouragement given to virtue, the proportions amongst those females who have derided from the path of virtue may be quoted as follows. One-fourth from being servants and taverns in public houses, where they have been seduced by men frequenting these places of dissipation and temptation. One-fourth from the intermixture of sexes in factories and those employed in workhouses and shops, etc. One-fourth by procuracies or females who visit country towns, markets and places of worship for the purpose of decoying good-looking girls of all classes. One-fourth may be divided into four classes, such as being indolent or possessing bad tempers, leaving their situations. Those who are driven to that awful course by young men making false promises, children who have been urged by their mothers to become prostitutes for a livelihood, daughters of clergymen, half-pay officers, etc., who are left portionless orphans. Well, go on, my dear, said the coal-whipper, when order was somewhat restored. I never was in a sentimental humor before tonight, not for many, many years, resumed the young woman, and I don't know what's making me talk as I am now. Because you haven't had enough gin, my dear, interrupted a coarse-looking fellow winking to his companions. Scarcely was the laughter promoted by this sally beginning to subside when a short, thick-set, middle-aged man enveloped in a huge, great coat. With most capricious pockets at the sides, entered the parlor, took his seat near the door, and called for a glass of hot gin and water.