Matilda Montgomerie; Or, The Prophecy FulfilledRichardson, Major (John)
History
Matilda Montgomerie; Or, The Prophecy Fulfilled
Richardson, Major (John)
United States -- History -- War of 1812 -- Fiction
Thus was the same consternation produced in the ball-room at
Amherstburg, that at a later period occurred in a similar place of
amusement at Brussels; and although not followed by the same momentous
public results, producing the same host of fluttering fears and
anxieties in the bosoms of the female votaries of Terpsichore. We
believe, however, that there existed some dissimilarity in the several
modes of communication--the Duke of Wellington receiving his, with some
appearance of regard on the part of the communicator for the nerves of
the ladies, while to Colonel St. Julian, commanding at Amherstburg, and
engaged at that moment at the whist-table, the news was imparted in
stentorian tones, which were audible to every one in the adjoining
ball-room.
But even if his voice had not been heard, the appearance of Lieutenant
Raymond would have justified the apprehension of any reasonable person,
for, in the importance of the moment, he had not deemed it necessary to
make any change in the dress in which he had been surprised and driven
back. Let the reader figure to himself a remarkably fat, ruddy faced
man, of middling age, dressed in a pair of tightly fitting, dread-naught
trowsers, and a shell jacket that had once been scarlet, but now, from
use and exposure, rather resembled the color of brickdust; boots from
which all polish had been taken by the grease employed to render them
snow-proof; a brace of pistols thrust into the black waist belt that
encircled his huge circumference, and from which depended a sword, whose
steel scabbard showed the rust of the rudest bivouac. Let him, moreover,
figure to himself that ruddy, carbuncled face, and nearly as ruddy brow,
suffused with perspiration, although in a desperately cold winter's
night, and the unwashed hands, and mouth, and lips black from the
frequent biting of the ends of cartridges, while ever and anon the
puffed cheeks, in the effort to procure air and relieve the panting
chest, recal the idea of a Bacchus, after one of his most lengthened
orgies--let him figure all this, and if he will add short, curling,
wiry, damp hair, surmounting a head as round as a turnip, a snubby, red,
_retroussé_ nose, and light grey eyes; he will have a tolerable idea of
the startling figure that thus abruptly made its appearance in the
person of Lieutenant Raymond, first among the dancers, and bustlingly
thence into the adjoining card-room.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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