The Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. YellowplushThackeray, William Makepeace
General
The Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. Yellowplush
Thackeray, William Makepeace
Didactic fiction; England -- Fiction; Household employees -- Fiction; Humorous stories; Master and servant -- Fiction
“The combatants were placed at forty paces, with directions to advance
to a barrier which separated them only eight paces. Each was furnished
with two pistols. Monsieur de l'O--- fired almost immediately, and the
ball took effect in the left wrist of his antagonist, who dropped the
pistol which he held in that hand. He fired, however, directly with his
right, and the chevalier fell to the ground, we fear mortally wounded. A
ball has entered above his hip-joint, and there is very little hope that
he can recover.
“We have heard that the cause of this desperate duel was a blow which
the chevalier ventured to give to the Hon. Mr. D. If so, there is some
reason for the unusual and determined manner in which the duel was
fought.
“Mr. Deu--a-e returned to his hotel; whither his excellent father, the
Right Hon. Earl of Cr-bs, immediately hastened on hearing of the sad
news, and is now bestowing on his son the most affectionate parental
attention. The news only reached his lordship yesterday at noon, while
at breakfast with his Excellency Lord Bobtail, our ambassador. The noble
earl fainted on receiving the intelligence; but in spite of the shock to
his own nerves and health, persisted in passing last night by the couch
of his son.”
And so he did. “This is a sad business, Charles,” says my lord to me,
after seeing his son, and settling himself down in our salong. “Have you
any segars in the house? And hark ye, send me up a bottle of wine and
some luncheon. I can certainly not leave the neighborhood of my dear
boy.”
CHAPTER VII.
THE CONSQUINSIES.
The shevalliay did not die, for the ball came out of its own accord, in
the midst of a violent fever and inflamayshn which was brot on by the
wound. He was kept in bed for 6 weeks though, and did not recover for a
long time after.
As for master, his lot, I'm sorry to say, was wuss than that of his
advisary. Inflammation came on too; and, to make an ugly story short,
they were obliged to take off his hand at the rist.
He bore it, in cors, like a Trojin, and in a month he too was well, and
his wound heel'd; but I never see a man look so like a devvle as he used
sometimes, when he looked down at the stump!
To be sure, in Miss Griffinses eyes, this only indeerd him the mor. She
sent twenty noats a day to ask for him, calling him her beloved, her
unfortunat, her hero, her wictim, and I dono what. I've kep some of the
noats, as I tell you, and curiously sentimentle they are, beating the
sorrows of MacWhirter all to nothing.
Old Crabs used to come offen, and consumed a power of wine and seagars
at our house. I bleave he was at Paris because there was an exycution
in his own house in England; and his son was a sure find (as they say)
during his illness, and couldn't deny himself to the old genlmn. His
eveninx my lord spent reglar at Lady Griffin's; where, as master was
ill, I didn't go any more now, and where the shevalier wasn't there to
disturb him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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