"What's the matter, James?" said I. "Why don't you goon?"
"I 'd rather be excused," said he. "It 's like Donnybrook Fair, down
there,--a regular shindy!"
It was no less, Molly; for although the hall was filled with servants,
there were two men armed with sticks, laying about them like mad, and
fighting their way towards the supper-room.
"Who are those wretches?" cried I; "why don't they turn them out?"
The words weren't well out, my dear Molly, when the door gave way, and
the two, trampling down all before them, passed into the room. From that
moment it was crash after crash! Lamps, lustres, china, glass, plates,
dishes, fruit, and confectionery flying on all sides! In less time than
I 'm writing it, the table was cleared, and of the elegant temple there
wasn't a bit standing. I just got inside the door to see the McCarthy
arms in smithereens! and K. I.--for it was him!--dancing over them, with
that little blackguard Paddy Byrne smashing everything round him! I went
off into fits, Molly, and never saw more; and, indeed, I wish with all
my heart that I never came to again, if what they tell me be only true.
K. I., it seems, no sooner demolished the supper than he set to work on
the company. He snatched off the Margravine's wig, and beat her with it,
kicking Dammiseisen and two other princes into the street. They say that
many of the nobility leaped out of the first-pair windows, and one fat
old gentleman, a chamberlain to the King of Bavaria, was caught by a
lamp iron, and hung there for twenty minutes, with a mob shouting round
him!
This all came of the Belgians letting out K. I. at one o'clock, which,
according to their reckoning, was the end of his three days.
I 'm getting another attack, so I must conclude. We left Brussels the
next morning, and arrived here the same night. I don't know where we are
going, and I don't care. K. I. has never had the face to come near me
since his infamous conduct, and I hope, for the little time I may be
spared on this side of the grave, not to see him again. Mary Anne is in
bed, too, and nearly as bad as myself; and as for Caroline, I wouldn't
let her into the room! Lord George took James away to his own lodgings
till K. I. learns to behave more like a Christian; but when that may be
is utterly beyond
Your afflicted and disgraced friend,
Jemima Dodd.
Hôtel d'Angleterre, Liège.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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