The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 2: Who was a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, a spy, a slave; among the moors...Sala, George Augustus
General
The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 2: Who was a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, a spy, a slave; among the moors...
Sala, George Augustus
Adventure and adventurers -- Fiction
Nuremberg hath its store of Churches and Relics, and the like; and even
the Lutherans, who are usually thought to be so strict and severe in the
adornment of their Temples, have in one of 'em a large Cross fairly set
with jewels. But this is nothing to the Popish High Church, where they
have at least a score of Saints, all dressed out in laced clothes, and
fair Full-bottomed Wigs, plentifully powdered. Here did we come across a
Prince Bishop of one of the Electoral German Towns, travelling with a
Mighty Retinue of Canons and Priests, and Assessors and Secretaries, and
a long train of Mules most richly caparisoned, with a guard of a hundred
Musketeers, with violet liveries and Mitres broidered on their
cartouch-boxes, to keep the Prince Bishop from coming to harm. My Master
dined with this Reverend Personage, although Mr. Hodge, to maintain the
purity of his cloth, kept aloof from any such Papistical entertainment;
but I was of the party, it being my duty to wait behind the Squire's
chair. We dined at two of the clock on very rich meats, high spiced, as
I have usually found Princes and Bishops to like their victuals (for the
Plainer sort soon Pall on their Palates), and after dinner there was a
Carousal, which lasted well nigh till bed-time. His Episcopal Highness's
Master of the Horse (though the title of Master of the Mules, on which
beasts the company mostly rode, would have better served him) got
somewhat too Merry on Rhenish about Dusk, and was carried out to the
stable, where the Palefreneers littered him down with straw, as though
he had been a Horse or a Mule himself; and then a little fat Canon, who
was the Buffoon or Jack Pudding of the party, sang songs over his drink
which were not in the least like unto Hymns or Canticles, but rather of
a most Mundane, not to say Loose, order of Chant. His Highness (who wore
the Biggest Emerald ring on his right Forefinger, over his glove, that
ever I saw) took a great fancy to my Master, and at Parting pledged him
in choice Rhenish in the handsomest fashion, using for that purpose a
Silver Bell holding at least a Pint and a half English. Out of this Bell
he takes the clapper, and holding it mouth upwards, drains it to the
health of my Master, then fixes the clapper in again, Topsy-turvies his
goblet, and rings a peal on the bell to show that he is a right Skinker.
My Master does the same, as in Duty Bound, and mighty Flustered he got
before the ringing-time came; and then the little Fat Canon that sang
the songs essayed to do the same, but was in such a Quandary of Liquor,
that he spills a pint over Mr. Secretary's lace bands, and the two would
have fallen to Fisticuffs but for his Episcopal Highness (who laughed
till his Sides Shook again) commanding that they should be separated by
the Lacqueys. This was the most jovial Bishop that I did meet with; and
I have heard that he was a good kind of man enough to the Poor, and not
a harsh Sovereign to his subjects, especially to the Female Part who
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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