French fiction -- Translations into English; Garrick, David, 1717-1779 -- Fiction
"Well done!" said O'Flannigan. "The Shakespeare accessories have been
largely plundered this evening! But tell us, Fisher, what leads you to
suppose that Lord Mowbray has designs upon Miss Woodville?"
"I have had proofs enough," replied Fisher mysteriously; "all the proofs
I want, you may believe me."
The hairdresser considered it unnecessary to say more, or to add that
the proofs in question bore the effigy of his Majesty.
"Merciful Heaven! what shall I do?" cried Mrs. Marsham wringing her
hands.
"You had better warn your son," suggested the Irishman.
The Quakeress quaked with terror.
"Reuben! He will overwhelm me with reproaches!"
"Never mind what he says. He is the betrothed of his cousin; he is
energetic and courageous; if any one is capable of snatching the girl
from impending doom, it is he. There is not a moment to be lost."
"But where shall we find him?"
"As to that," replied Fisher, "nothing is easier. All day long he has
been at the head of the papal enemies. I must be greatly mistaken if he
is not at this moment engaged in setting fire to the Sardinian chapel."
It was thereupon decided to place Mrs. Marsham in safety in Fisher's
house, which was near Oxford Road, while the two men went in search of
Reuben.
The hairdresser had friends everywhere. At the door he received fresh
tidings which confirmed his suppositions. Capt. Hackman, Lord Mowbray's
inseparable companion, had been seen in Oxford Road with a pistol under
each arm. A carriage without armorial bearings, with neutral colored
livery, had been stationed at a short distance. A masked gentleman with
a brown and blue domino upon his arm had come out of the Pantheon. He
had signalled the carriage, which had approached, and the man and woman
had entered it. Thereupon Hackman sprang upon the box, saying to the
coachman, "To Chelsea!" Then the horses set off at full speed towards
the left, narrowly escaping running over people. There was still another
version which a page had to tell. It was the same masked man and the
domino in the same colors; only the affair had taken place at one of the
little side-doors of the Pantheon. Instead of the coach a sedan-chair
had carried off the fugitive towards the right, in the direction of the
city. In affairs of the kind there are always points of difference among
the witnesses. Who was to be believed? Evidently those who had
recognized Hackman and heard the address given to the coachman. It was
towards the "Folly" at Chelsea that Mowbray had undoubtedly taken his
victim. Fisher was an alert and intelligent man. Some minutes later,
divested of his turban, his Persian robe, and his beard, he joined
Reuben in Duke Street. The vandals had achieved their work, and the
crowd of by-standers, lit up by the flames, gloated over the spectacle.
The blazing pile, formed of the ornaments of the chapel, was beginning
to flag for lack of combustibles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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