^ " THE STORY /ES FROM YEAR TO YEAR."—SHAKESPEARE. ALL THE YEAR ROUND. ") ^ A WEEKLY JOUENAL. CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS. WITH WHICH IS INCOEPOKATED HOUSEHOLD W O.E D S. N°- 254.] SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 1864. [PjlICE id. gratitude, decency, had gone to sleep for awhile. QUITE ALONE. O'Connell caUed Wellington a '^stimted cor­ poral," and Alvanley a " bloated buffoon," and BOOK THE FIRST: CHILDHOOD. DisraeH the yoimger "a lineal descendant of the impenitent thief." One Cocking had cast him­ CHAPTER VII. WHEN WILLIAM THE I^OURTH self into space in a parachute, and, coming into WAS KING. contact Avith the earth, was smashed to death. THE epoch, there was no denying it, was a A crafty Frenchman lured many hundreds of wild and dissolute one. The imprint of the simpletons into taking tickets for a passage in Regent's cloven foot had not yet worn away. his navigable baUoon or aerial ship. Then, A man was upon the throne. He made a de­ timeously, he ran away, and left them with theu- corous king enough in his old age, mainly through tickets, and an empty bag of oiled silk. There the infiuence of a pious and admirable wife; but were people who did not believe in steam. There his youth had been the converse of reputable. were others who did beHeve in it, but held that The sons of George the Third had not contri­ locomotives and paddle-steamers were only the buted in any great degree to the elevation of precursors of the end of the world. MeanwhUe, the moral tone of the country. The trial of Chat Moss had been drained by Stephenson, and Queen Caroline, and the private life of George Brunei was piercing the Thames Tunnel. But the Fourth, had done a good deal towards de­ nothing was settled. Nobody knew where any­ praving the national manners. There were no thing was to end. Steam and scepticism and 3'oung princesses save one, the Hope of Eng­ tractarianism and Murphy's weather almanack, land, whom her good mother kept sedulously the abolition of slavery and the labour of chil­ aloof from the polluting atmosphere of the age. dren in factories, lions and tigers at Drury Lane, The Duchess of Kent and her daughter went and the patents taken away therefrom, and from tranquilly about from watering-place to watering- Covent Garden too; commutation of tithes and place, and gathered sheUs and weeds upon the reform of municipal corporations, charity com­ sands, and visited poor people in their cot­ missions and the new Poor-law, chartism, trades- tages, and sat under evangelical ministers, and unionism and the unknown tongues; oceans of allowed the age to go by, and to be as wild and pamphlets; new clubs starting up aU over the capal dissolute as it chose. They hoped and waited West-end; pigtaUs, knee-breeches and hair- for better times, and the better times came powder beginning to be laughed at; the at last, and have continued, and wiU endure, ChanceUor jumping up and down on the wool­ we trust. sack like a parched pea in a fire-shovel, instead Party spirit ran high. We had been on the of gravely doubting and doubting for years, and verge of a revolution about Catholic Emancipa­ working no end of misery and ruin, as Chancellor tion, of another about Parliamentary Reform. Eldonhad done: all these things, with Irish out­ Everything was disorganised. There were com­ rages, colonial discontents and embarrassing rela­ missions sitting upon everything, with a view to tions with foreign powers (order reigned in War­ the abrogation of most things. Barristers of saw, and " Vivent les Polonais!" in Paris meant seven years' standing, fattened upon the treasures the erection of barricades and a tussle between wrung from the sinecurists, and the pension- the blouses and the soldiery), made up a chaotic holders of the old Black Book. Commissioners whirlwind of sand and pebbles and brickbats and inspectors became as great a nuisance and and scraps of paper, the whole accompanied by burden to the country as the clerks of the Pipe a prodigious noise, driving peaceably-minded or the Tellers of the Exchequer had been. people half blind, and half deaf, and parcel- Everybody had his theory for regenerating so­ mad, ciety, but lacked sincere faith in his own Francis Blunt, Esq., and Monsieur Constant, nostrums; and so, after a while, deserted them. had left Stockwell shortly after eleven o'clock. It was a reign of terror without much blood. The hackney-coachman had been weU paid, and /TO' rj\]^Q warfare was mostly one of words and prin­promised an extra fee for speed; but the era of ciples, abusive language being in vogue among rapid Hansoms was yet to come, and it was nearly perfectly unscrupulous party-writers. Reverence, midnight when the two jaded horses that drew YOL. XL 254 7-± [March 5,1864.] ALL THE5YS ^ mUML 'Gouducted by the vehicle clattered over Westminster Bridge. then Dobree has most of my valuables; aud Mr. Blunt felt so exhausted that he was com­ then there are your wages. Constant." peUed to descend at a tavern on the Surrey side "And my commission, if monsieur pleases." of the bridge and refresh himself with a small "And your commission, most immaculate of glass of brandy. He re-entered the coach, making commercial agents. Five per cent, is it not? wry faces, and declaring the liquor abominable. You go abroad wdth me, Constant, so that you Constant treated the coachman to a glass of ale, know I am perfectly safe. By the w^ay, you but did not presume to accompany his master couldn't manage to take the hundred to the she- to the bar of the tavern. He partook, outside, wolf to-night, could you?" of a moderate sip of his ow^n from a small "Ready money is not very plentiful," returned pocket-flask. the valet, after some consideration; "but I "Why didn't you tell me you had something think I can contrive to obtemperate, by a to drink w'ith you ?" said Blunt, pettishly, as Httle finessing, to monsieur's demand. Might he saw his companion replace the flask hi a side- I, however, ask him to promise me one little pocket. thing ?" "I eould not venture to ask monsieur " " What is it, Constant: a rise in your wages ?" began the valet, gravely, "Monsieur's service is sufficiently remunera­ "I dare say you couldn't, Constant. You're tive/' answered the valet, and I beHeve he spoke a sly fox, and always keep the best of the game with perfect sincerity, "It is not that." to yourself. Here, give me the bottle. I have "What then?" need of a little Dutch courage to-night." "Not to touch the dice to-night. As an Mr. Blunt took a pretty heavy draught of the amusement, they are admirable; as a commercial Dutch courage, which was, indeed, the very operation, they are destruction." best French cognac. He took a pretty deep " Confound the bones, I know they are," Mr. draught of it, for a man of such delicately-strung Blunt, with some discomposure, acknowledged. nerves. "If I had stuck to the coups you taught me "Capital brandy," he murmured, smacking at Vanjohn, I should have made ten thousand his lips, "You have a talent for buying the this season alone, I never get that infernal best of everything for yourself. Why on earth box in my hand without coming to grief in some did you allow me to go into that atrocious gm- way or other. And yet what money I have palace ?" won!" " It is for monsieur to lead the way." " And what money lost!" " And for you constantly and carefuUy to avoid "Your answer is unanswerable. Yes; I will foUowing me, and to aUow me to fall into the promise you, I wiU keep my head cool, and Hons' den. Constant, do you know what I have won't touch ivory to-night." to do to-night ?" " You are going to Crockford's ?" " To be bold, and to win." "Must go there, you know. Shan't stopaa "You have taught me how to manage the one, hour. The only way of luring my pigeon out." I think I can depend on my own presence of "And then?" mind for the other. But do you know how " To the umbrella-shop, of course. The worthy much I want?" Count Cubford wiU expect his commission on "Monsieur's wants are extensive." the transaction, for permission to play Vanjohn "And so are yours, monsieur the sleeping in his sanctum. Everybody wants his com­ partner. Egad, unless I rise from the table a mission now-a-days. I wonder Langhorne, of winner of flve thousand pounds I am a mined the Guards, doesn't ask for fifteen per cent for man!" having introduced me to Debonnair," " Monsieur's creditors indeed are pressing." "You will be able to afi'ord it if you only "The creditors be hanged," Francis Blunt, follow the instructions I gave you. You—I Esq., returned, with much equanimity. " It isn't mean monsieur—must keep his head very cool, for them I shaU have to sit up tiU five o'clock and, as much as possible, his eyes fixed on his this morning. But there are debts of honour. opponent. Monsieur must never lose his temper, Constant, that must be paid. I owe Carlton and must never grow tired. Then, if he takes fifteen hundred, I owe the Italian prince, what's care, and Debonnair is gris enough, he will his name ?—MarigUano—a monkey, I must send win his five thousand and more before moru- that she-wolf of mine, a hundred pounds before ing,' to-morrow afternoon, or she wiU be crawling " I believe I shall.