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Article TRYING TO CHANGE A SOVEREIGN. ← Page 5 of 11 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Trying To Change A Sovereign.
floor from the street door until it was lost in the darkness of the further recesses of the corridor . To this black seam he was about to apply the li ght —when—a warning injunction recurred to his mind—Keep it dark !
And in an instant he covered the light , and all was shrouded in the deepest gloom . A voice" Do your duty !" Those words ! Ah ! John Johnson—otherwise Guy—but , ah !—no matter ! he remembered them , then ! They rang in his ears as the handcuffs clinked
and clamped his wrists together . They rebuked him as , prone on his back , feeling the head of a halberd at his throat , and the muzzle of a petronel at his temple , he knew that all was lost—that the armed host—for the watch , with staves and bills and torches , had by this time come up—had rendered further resistance hopeless ; that he was a doomed captive ; that at the critical moment —critical for his individual fate in particular and for the future career of the " Long " firm in general—he had omitted to remember the readiness , promptitude , and despatch enjoined him in the solemn
injunction—DO YOUR DUTY ! CHAPTER VIII . WHAT BECAME OF MRS . CRITCHETT ' S COALS . THE hostelry bearing the sign of the " Pox under the Hill , " * hard by the
ancient palace of " Old John of Gaunt , time-honoured Lancaster , " was licensed by the Strand division of Magistrates to serve chops and kidneys and Welsh Rare-bits up to one a . m . During the day it was known as the house of call for coalheavers , but at night , when the murky porters had retired to their peaceful beds in Marsh Gate or the Stratton Ground , gilded youth occupied the comfortably curtained boxes they had vacated , and quaffed hock and seltzer and champagne cup from the pewters wherefrom , in the daytime , the coalies
had quenched their craving thirst . Now , Sir Thomas Knyvett , when Guy— -I beg pardon , Mr . Johnson—was haled away for temporary safe custody to the Westminster Round House , and when the Lord Chamberlain in the frieze jacket—there , it must out—had scuttled off hot foot to rouse Majesty out of bed , and tell him the news of the arrest—when all this had happened , I say , Sir Thomas addressed A Reserve with the remark : — "You'll want some coalies to do this job , I ' m thinking . "
" But where are we to lay hands on them at this time of the night ? " urged the other . " I can get the address of a dozen at the ' Pox under the Hill , ' in the Savoy
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Trying To Change A Sovereign.
floor from the street door until it was lost in the darkness of the further recesses of the corridor . To this black seam he was about to apply the li ght —when—a warning injunction recurred to his mind—Keep it dark !
And in an instant he covered the light , and all was shrouded in the deepest gloom . A voice" Do your duty !" Those words ! Ah ! John Johnson—otherwise Guy—but , ah !—no matter ! he remembered them , then ! They rang in his ears as the handcuffs clinked
and clamped his wrists together . They rebuked him as , prone on his back , feeling the head of a halberd at his throat , and the muzzle of a petronel at his temple , he knew that all was lost—that the armed host—for the watch , with staves and bills and torches , had by this time come up—had rendered further resistance hopeless ; that he was a doomed captive ; that at the critical moment —critical for his individual fate in particular and for the future career of the " Long " firm in general—he had omitted to remember the readiness , promptitude , and despatch enjoined him in the solemn
injunction—DO YOUR DUTY ! CHAPTER VIII . WHAT BECAME OF MRS . CRITCHETT ' S COALS . THE hostelry bearing the sign of the " Pox under the Hill , " * hard by the
ancient palace of " Old John of Gaunt , time-honoured Lancaster , " was licensed by the Strand division of Magistrates to serve chops and kidneys and Welsh Rare-bits up to one a . m . During the day it was known as the house of call for coalheavers , but at night , when the murky porters had retired to their peaceful beds in Marsh Gate or the Stratton Ground , gilded youth occupied the comfortably curtained boxes they had vacated , and quaffed hock and seltzer and champagne cup from the pewters wherefrom , in the daytime , the coalies
had quenched their craving thirst . Now , Sir Thomas Knyvett , when Guy— -I beg pardon , Mr . Johnson—was haled away for temporary safe custody to the Westminster Round House , and when the Lord Chamberlain in the frieze jacket—there , it must out—had scuttled off hot foot to rouse Majesty out of bed , and tell him the news of the arrest—when all this had happened , I say , Sir Thomas addressed A Reserve with the remark : — "You'll want some coalies to do this job , I ' m thinking . "
" But where are we to lay hands on them at this time of the night ? " urged the other . " I can get the address of a dozen at the ' Pox under the Hill , ' in the Savoy