been repeatedly abused and insulted during the night, and had gone
thither, unable to bear the sight of the disgusting revelry that was
going forward. In short, at every point that caught the eye, were
visible the evidences of the villanous debauchery which had prevailed
for the last seven hours; and which, under the Titmouse dynasty, was
likely to prevail at all times thereafter. As for Mr. Titmouse, half
stunned with the treatment which he had experienced at the hands of Sir
Harkaway, he had been carried to bed--where his excessive,
miscellaneous, and long-continued potations aggravating the effect of
the serious injuries which he had sustained, he lay sprawling, half
undressed, in a truly deplorable condition. Mr. Glister, who had been
summoned to his bedside upwards of an hour before, sat now nodding in
his chair beside his patient; and pretty nearly in a state of similar
exhaustion were his valet and the housekeeper, who had, from time to
time, wiped her eyes and sobbed aloud when thinking of past times, and
the horrid change which had come over old Yatton. Mr. Yahoo, Mr.
Fitz-Snooks, Mr. Snap, Mr. Quirk, and Miss Quirk, (the last having
retired to her bedroom in the utmost terror, at the time of Titmouse's
mischance,) were in their respective chambers, all of them probably
asleep. Poor Hector, chained to his kennel, having barked himself hoarse
for several hours, lay fast asleep, no one having attended to him, or
given him anything to eat since Mr. Titmouse's arrival. Gammon had
retired from the scene, in disgust and alarm, to his bedroom, some three
hours before; but unable to sleep--not, however, with excess of wine,
for he had drunk very little--had arisen about four o'clock, and was at
that moment wandering slowly, with folded arms and downcast countenance,
up and down the fine avenue of elm-trees, where, it may be recollected,
Mr. Aubrey had spent a portion of the last evening of his stay at
Yatton.
Such is _my_ account of that memorable entertainment--and as fair an
account as I know how to give of the matter; but it is curious to
observe how very differently the same thing will strike different
people. As soon as the grateful Mr. Centipede had recovered from the
excitement occasioned by the part which he had borne in the splendid
festival, he set to work, with the pen of a ready writer, and in the
next number of the "YORKSHIRE STINGO," there appeared the following
interesting account of the
"FESTIVITIES _at_ YATTON HALL, _on the occasion of_ POSSESSION
_being taken by_ TITTLEBAT TITMOUSE, ESQUIRE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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