A LARGE PARTY VISITS BIG BEN AND THE LIONS IN THE TOWER.
On the morning following the committal of Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney Todd
to Newgate for trial, a rather large party met at the office of Sir
Richard Blunt, in Craven Street, Strand. The fact was that after the
proceedings at the police-office, Big Ben had earnestly besought them
all to name the day to visit him and the lions in the Tower, and as no
day was so convenient to Sir Richard as that immediately following, it
was arranged that they were all to meet at the private office in Craven
Street, and go there by water to the Tower.
The sun shone beautifully; and to look at that party no one would have
supposed that there had ever been such persons as Sweeney Todd and Mrs.
Lovett in the world.
The party consisted of Colonel Jeffery, Tobias, Mr. and Mrs. Oakley,
Minna Gray, Johanna, Mark Ingestrie, Arabella Wilmot, and the
fruiterer's daughter from Fleet Street, who had been so kind to Johanna
during that very sad and anxious time that she had passed while in the
temporary service of Todd.
[Illustration: Tobias And Minna Rejoice At The Capture Of Todd And Mrs.
Lovett.]
So happy-looking and smiling a party surely could not have been found in
all London, as they made up. It will be seen that there were no less
than three couples intent upon matrimony, for although it was understood
that Tobias was to wait two years yet before he married, he looked as
happy as the rest.
A large eight-oared barge was at the stairs at the bottom of the street
to convey them, and as they all walked to it arm-in-arm, and in couples,
everybody who met them would have it that it was a wedding, and many
jocular remarks were made to them by the way.
"Upon my word," said Sir Richard, "I shall be considered a match-maker,
and folks will say that I keep this office of my own only as a
matrimonial speculation."
"You certainly," said the colonel, "have been the cause of two or three
matches, at all events, for, but for you, I doubt if any of us would
have felt as we feel to day, Sir Richard."
"He has restored Mark Ingestrie to me," said Johanna.
"And my Johanna to me," said Ingestrie.
"And my dear Minna to me," cried Tobias.
"Stop--stop!" cried Sir Richard.
"And I am quite certain," said the colonel, "that I owe to him the joy
of calling Arabella mine."
Sir Richard Blunt came now to a halt, as he said--
"Stop, all of you, or I will not go one step further. If we get into
this kind of talk, who is to say where it will end? Let us enjoy
ourselves, and make it a rule to say anything but revert to the past. It
has its joys and its sorrows, but it had better upon this occasion be
left to itself."
"Agreed--agreed," said everybody.
The barge was a very handsome one. Indeed Sir Richard Blunt had borrowed
it of one of the city companies for the occasion, and beneath the gay
awning they could all sit with perfect ease.
And now in the course of another five minutes they were going down the
river, quite at a slashing pace, towards the old Tower; and as they were
animated by the many pleasing sights upon the river, their conversation
soon became animated and spirited.
"What is that?--A wherry coming towards us from the Temple-stairs," said
the colonel.
All eyes were bent upon the wherry, which shot out from the little
landing-place by the side of the Temple Gardens, and presently they,
with one accord, cried out--
"It's Hector!"
In truth Hector was there, but with him was the colonel's new groom, the
late ostler, who had been so efficient a protector to the dog, and the
captain of the ship, whom he knew so well.
"Barge a-hoi!" cried the captain.
"Ay--ay!" shouted Ingestrie in reply, and the wherry shot alongside the
barge.
"Well," said the captain, "I do think for you all to go on such a party
as this, and not ask me and Hector, is too bad."
"But," said Sir Richard Blunt, "you told me you were going to be very
busy at the docks."
"So I did, but I found our owner had not come to town, and I have
nothing to do to-day. I called at your house, colonel, hoping to be in
time to come with you, but you had gone. Hector, however, saw me, and
made such a racket I was forced to bring him."
"And no one can be more glad to see you and Hector than I," cried the
colonel.
"And I didn't like, sir," said the ostler, "not for to come for to go,
when Pison said as he'd like to come."
"Very good," said the colonel smiling. "Come on board."
The waterman who was with the wherry laid it alongside the barge, and
having been liberally paid for his freight, rowed off again, leaving
with the barge party, his two customers and the dog.
The Tower was soon in sight, for at that time there were not by any
means so many obstructions to the navigation of the River Thames as are
to be found now, and the stream too was very much clearer than now it
can boast of being. The host of manufactories that have since risen upon
its banks were not then thought of.
"I do think," said Colonel Jeffery, "that I can see our friend Ben at
the landing place. Look, Mr. Oakley, is that not Ben?"
"Bless you, sir," said Mr. Oakley, "I couldn't see so far if you would
make me king of England for doing so. Johanna, my love, you have young
eyes, and know Ben well."
"Yes, pa, it is Ben, and he is waving his hand to us, and looks so
pleased."
"He is a most worthy honest fellow," said Sir Richard Blunt. "I like him
very much, from what little I have seen of him. He has the simplicity of
a child."
"Yes," added the colonel, "and the candour and honesty of a lover of
human nature. I believe a better heart than Ben's never beat in human
bosom."
"I am quite sure of it," said Johanna. "I love Ben very much indeed. He
has been ever a kind and indulgent friend to me."
"Do you hear that, Mr. Ingestrie?" said Arabella.
"Yes," laughed Mark, "but I decline investing Ben with any of the
attributes of a rival. Now, I love you, Miss Wilmot very much indeed,
because you have always been such a dear kind friend to Johanna; and I
daresay the colonel will permit me to do so."
"To be sure I will--at a distance," said the colonel.
Everybody laughed at this, and then, as the rowers increased their
exertions to come in to the Tower stairs with some eclat, the barge soon
was safely moored at the landing place.
"Here you are all of you," cried Ben, capering in his huge delight.
"Here you all are. Come along. Oh, how hungry I am."
"That sounds as if you meant to eat us, Ben," said Sir Richard, as he
stepped from the barge.
"Oh, dear no. Only I have got a little bit of lunch ready for you all,
and as I helped to place it on the table it made me so hungry that I've
been half mad ever since, and I'm as thirsty too as can be. Oh, Mr.
Jeffery, I often think if the Thames were only strong ale, what a place
the Tower would be."
"You may depend," said Sir Richard, "if it were, the government would
pretty soon bottle it all off."
Johanna was going to step on shore, but Ben made a dash at her, and
lifting her up as you would some little child, he seated her on his left
arm, and so fairly carried her into the Tower.
"You wait, Miss Arabella," he cried. "I'll come for you."
This so alarmed Miss Wilmot that she sprang on shore in a moment, and
all the party laughed heartily to see Mark Ingestrie flying along after
Ben, and shouting as he went--
"Put her down--put her down! Ben!--Ben! She'd rather walk. Put her
down!"
Ben paid no manner of attention to any of these remonstrances, but
carried Johanna right into the Tower before he set her upon her feet
again, which he then did as tenderly as though she had been some infant,
only just learning to walk.
"Mind how you go," he said. "Take it easy. Easy does it."
"But I can walk, Ben."
"Very good. Mind how you does, you nice little thing. Oh, I likes you a
great deal better in the petticoats and not the breeches."
"Well, Ben," said Mark Ingestrie, "I am certainly very much obliged to
you--very much, indeed."
"Don't mention it, my boy," replied Ben, totally oblivious of the manner
in which Mark Ingestrie uttered the words--a manner which betrayed some
little pique upon the occasion. The laughter of Johanna and his friends,
however, soon chased away the temporary cloud.
"Where's the t'other little one?" said Ben.
"I am here," cried Arabella, laughing.
"Oh, you got on without me, did you? Very good: only if you had only
waited, I shouldn't have thought it no trouble at all, whatsomedever.
Easy does it, you know."
"Thank you, Ben. I'd just as soon walk, and a little rather, perhaps, of
the two. It was quite amusing enough to see you carry Johanna."
"Well--well, there ain't much gratitude in this world. Come on, all of
you, for you must be famished; and as for me, I haven't had a bit of
anything to eat for a whole hour and a half, and then it was only a
pound and three quarters of beef-steak, and a half quartern loaf!"
"But we are none of us hungry," said Johanna.
"Never mind that," replied Ben, "you don't know what you may be; so
always eat when you can get it. That's my maxim, and I find it answers
very well. Plenty to eat and drink, and taking things easy, is how I get
through the world, and you'll all on you find it the best in the long
run."
"There are worse philosophies than that going," said Sir Richard Blunt
to Colonel Jeffery.
"Very much worse," laughed the colonel.
Ben now led the way along a narrow arched passage, and through two
rather gloomy corridors to a stone room, with a grand arched roof, in
the ancient fortress; and there, sure enough, they found the little
snack, as he called it, laid out very nicely for their reception.
A table ran along the centre of the room, and at one end of it there was
placed an immense round of corn beef. At the other was a haunch of
mutton, weighing at least thirty pounds. Somewhat about the middle of
the table was an enormous turkey; and those dishes, with a ham and four
tongues, made up a tolerable repast.
Six half-gallon flagons, filled with old Burton Ale, stood at regular
distances upon the table.
"It's only," said Ben, "a slight snack, after all; but I hope you will
be just able to find enough."
"Enough!" cried Sir Richard. "Why, there's enough for fifty people."
"There's almost enough for a regiment!" said the colonel.
"Oh, you are joking," said Ben; "but come, sit down. You, father Oakley,
sit here by this little bit of mutton, and I'll cut up the beef."
After considerable laughing they were all seated; and then Ben, finding
that Johanna was on one side of him, and Miss Wilmot on the other,
declared that he was quite satisfied.
He cut, first of all, a cold tongue in halves down the middle
lengthways, and placed one half upon a plate for Johanna, and the other
on a plate for Arabella. Then upon the tongue in each plate, he placed
about a pound of ham.
"Take that, my little dears," he said, "to begin with, and don't be
sparing now, for there's the turkey and the mutton, you know, to fall
back upon. Easy does it."
The room resounded with shrieks of laughter at the looks of utter
distressful dismay which Johanna and Arabella cast upon their plates;
and Ben looked from one face to another in perfect astonishment, for he
could not see any joke for the life of him.
"Dear Ben," said Johanna, "do you really imagine we can eat a tenth part
of all this?"
"Do I imagine?--In course I does. Only you begin. Lord bless you, that
ain't much. Come--come, you want your ale, I suppose. So here it is."
Upon this, Ben poured them each out about a quart of the strong ale, and
requested them to take an easy pull at that.
They found that it was of no use requesting Ben to diminish the quantity
he helped them to; so they just, as he advised, took it easy, and ate
what they had a mind to do.
As for Ben himself, he cut one large slice off the round of beef, and
then placed upon it two slices of ham, so that the thickness--for he was
not a delicate carver--was about three inches; and so he set to work,
every now and then taking up one of the half-gallon ale flagons, and
pledging the company all round.
Probably, rough and homely as was Ben's lunch, not one of them present
had ever enjoyed such a meal more than they this did; and if we might
judge by the loud laughter that echoed about the old arched roof, a
merrier hour was never spent than in the Tower with Big Ben.
But it was a sadness to Ben to find that such little progress was made
in the consumption of his eatables and drinkables; and he uttered many
groans as he watched Johanna and Arabella.