perceived the gateway to which Barney had directed me, and passing under
it into a court filled with tottering tenements of the most wretched
appearance, we were soon attracted to the spot we sought, by the clamour
of voices apparently singing and vociferating together. The faithful
Barney was ready posted at the door to receive us, and had evidently
prepared the company to show more than usual respect. An old building
or shed adjoining the deceased's residence, which had been used for
a carpenter's shop, was converted for the occasion from its general
purpose to a melancholy hall of mourning. At one end of this place
was the corpse of the deceased, visible to every person from its
being placed on a bed in a sitting posture, beneath a tester of ragged
check-furniture; large sheets of white linen were spread around the
walls in lieu of tapestries, and covered with various devices wrought
into fantastic images of flowers, angels, and seraphim. A large,
fresh-gathered posy in the bosom of the deceased had a most striking
effect, when contrasted ~30~~with the pallidness of death; over the
lower parts of the corpse was spread a counterpane, covered with roses,
marigolds, and sweet-smelling flowers; whilst on his breast reposed the
cross, emblematical of the dead man's faith; and on a table opposite,
at the extreme end, stood an image of our Redeemer, before which burned
four tall lights in massive candlesticks, lent by the priest upon such
occasions to give additional solemnity to the scene. There is something
very awful in the contemplation of death, from which not even the
strongest mind can altogether divest itself. But at a _wake_ the solemn
gloom which generally pervades the chamber of a lifeless corpse is
partially removed by the appearance of the friends of the deceased
arranged around, drinking, singing, and smoking tobacco in profusion.
Still there was something unusually impressive in observing the poor
widow of O'Rafferty, seated at the feet of her deceased lord with an
infant in her arms, and all the appearance of a heart heavily charged
with despondency and grief. An old Irishwoman, seated at the side of
the bed, was making the most violent gesticulations, and audibly calling
upon the spirit of the departed "to see how they onor'd his mimory,"
raising the cross before her, while two or three others came up to the
head, uttered a short prayer, and then sat down to drink his sowl out of
purgation. (See Plate.)
[Illustration: page030]
But the most extraordinary part of the ceremony was the _howl_, or
oration spoken over the dead man by a rough-looking, broad-shouldered
Emeralder, who descanted upon his virtues as if he had been an hero of
the first magnitude, and invoked every saint in the calendar to free
the departed from perdition. For some time decorum was pretty well
preserved; but on my friends Bob Transit and Horace Eglantine sending
Barney out for a whole gallon of whiskey, and a proportionate quantity
of pipes and tobacco, the dull scene of silent meditation ~31~~gave way
to sports and spree, more accordant with their feelings; and the kindred
of the deceased were too familiar with such amusements to consider them
in any degree disrespectful. There is a volatile something in the
Irish character that strongly partakes of the frivolity of our Gallic
neighbours; and it is from this feature that we often find them gay
amidst the most appalling wants, and humorous even in the sight of cold
mortality. A song was soon proposed, and many a ludicrous stave sung,
as the inspiring cup made the circle of the company. "Luke Caffary's
Kilmainham Minit," an old flash chant, and "The Night before Larry was
stretched," were among the most favourite ditties of the night. A verse
from the last may serve to show their _peculiar_ character.
"The night before Larry was stretch'd,
The boys they all paid him a visit;
And bit in their sacks too they fetch'd,
They sweated their duds till they riz it.
For Larry was always the lad,
When a friend was condemn'd to the squeezer.
But he'd fence all the foss that he had
To help a poor friend to a sneezer,
And moisten his sowl before he died."
Ere eleven o'clock had arrived, the copious potations of whiskey and
strong beer, joined to the fumes of the tobacco, had caused a powerful
alteration in the demeanor of the assembled group, who now became
most indecorously vociferous. "By the powers of Poll Kelly!" said the
raw-boned fellow who had howled the lament over the corpse, "I'd be
arter making love to the widow mysel', only it mightn't be altogether
dacent before Teddy's put out o' the way." "You make love to the widow!"
responded the smart-looking Florence M'Carthy; "to the divil I pitch
you, you bouncing bogtrotter! it's myself alone that will have that
onor, bekase Teddy O'Rafferty wished me to take his wife as a legacy.
'It's all I've got, Mr. Florence,' ~32~~said he to me one day, 'to lave
behind for the redemption of the small trifle I owe you.'" "It aint the
like o' either of you that will be arter bamboozling my cousin, Mrs.
Judy O'Rafferty, into a blind bargain," said Barney O'Finn; in whose
noddle the whiskey began to fumigate with the most valorous effect.
"You're a noble-spirited fellow, Barney," said Horace Eglantine, who was
using his best exertions to produce a _row_. "At them again, Barney, and
tell them their conduct is most indecent." Thus stimulated and prompted,
Barney was not tardy in re-echoing the charge; which, as might have been
expected, produced an instantaneous explosion and general battle. In
two minutes the company were thrown into the most appalling scene of
confusion--chairs and tables upset, bludgeons, pewter pots, pipes,
glasses, and other missiles flying about in all directions, until broken
heads and shins were as plentiful as black eyes, and there was no lack
of either--women screaming and children crying, making distress more
horrible. In this state of affairs, Bob Transit had climbed up and
perched himself upon a beam to make observations; while the original
fomenter of the strife, that mad wag Eglantine, had with myself made our
escape through an aperture into the next house, and having secured
our persons from violence were enabled to become calm observers of the
affray, by peeping through the breach by which we had entered. In the
violence of the struggle, poor Teddy O'Rafferty was doomed to experience
another upset before his remains were consigned to the tomb; for just at
the moment that a posse of watchmen and night-constables arrived to
put an end to the broil, such was the panic of the assailants that in
rushing towards the bed to conceal themselves from the _charlies_, they
tumbled poor Teddy head over heels to the floor of his shed, leaving
his head's antipodes sticking up where his head should have been; a
~33~~circumstance that more than any thing else contributed to appease
the inflamed passions of the group, who, shocked at the sacrilegious
insult they had committed, immediately sounded a parley, and united to
reinstate poor Teddy O'Rafferty in his former situation. This was the
signal for Horace and myself to proceed round to the front door, and
pretending we were strangers excited by curiosity, succeeded, by a
little well-timed flattery and a small trifle to drink our good healths,
in freeing the assailants from all the horrors of a watch-house, and
eventually of restoring peace and unanimity. It was now past midnight;
leaving therefore poor Barney O'Finn to attend mass, and pay the last
sad tribute to his departed relative, on the morning of the morrow
we once more bent our steps towards home, laughing as we went at the
strange recollections of the wake, the row, and last appearance of Teddy
O'Rafferty.{1}
REQUIESCAT IN PACE.
1 As the reader might not think this story complete without
gome account of the concluding ceremonies, I have
ascertained from Barney that his cousin Teddy was quietly
borne on the shoulders of his friends to the church of St.
Paneras, where he was safely deposited with his mother-
earth, a bit of a bull, by the by; and after the mourners
had made three circles round his ashes, and finished the
ceremony by a most delightful howl and prayers said over the
crossed spades, they all retired peaceably home, moderately
laden with the juice of the _crature_.
[Illustration: page033]
THE CYPRIAN'S BALL,
OR
Sketches of Characters
AT THE VENETIAN CARNIVAL.
Scene.--Argyll Rooms.
~34~~
"Hymen ushers the lady Astrea,
The jest took hold of Latona the cold,
Ceres the brown, with bright Cytherea,
Thetis the wanton, Bellona the bold;
Shame-faced Aurora
With witty Pandora,
And Maia with Flora did company bear;"
(And many 'tis stated
Went there to be mated,
Who all their lives have been hunting the fair. )
Blackmantle, Transit, Eglantine, and Crony's Visit to the
Venetian Carnival--Exhibits--Their Char-acters drawn from
the Life--General Trinket, the M.C.--Crony's singidar
Anecdote of the great Earl of Chesterfield, and Origin of
the Debouchettes--The Omissions in the Wilson Memoirs
supplied--Biographical Reminiscences of the Amiable Mrs.
Debouchette--Harriette and lier Sisters--Amy--Mary--Fanny--
Julia--Sophia--Charlotte and Louisa--Paphians and their
Paramours--Peers and Plebeians--The Bang Bantam--London Leda
--Spanish Nun--Sparrow Hawk--Golden Pippin--White Crow--
Brazen Bellona--Edgeware Diana
~35~~
Water Lily--White Doe--Comic Muse--Queen of the
Dansysettes--Vestina the Titan--The Red Rose--Moss Rose and
Cabbage Rose--The Doldrum Stars of Erin--Wren of Paradise--
Queen of the Amazons--Old Pomona--Venus Mendicant--Venus
Callypiga--Goddess of the Golden Locks--Mocking Bird--Net
Perdita--Napoleon Venus--Red Swan--Black Swan--Blue-eyed
Luna--Tartar Sultana The Bit of Rue--Brompton Ceres--
Celestina Conway--Lucy Bertram--Water Wagtail--Tops and
Bottoms--The Pretenders--The Old Story--Lady of the Priory--
Little White Morose--Queen of Trumps--Giovanni the Syren,
with Ileal Names "unexed--Original Portraits and Anecdotes
of the Dukes of M------and D------, Marquisses II------ and
II ----, Earls W------, F------, and C------, Lords
P------, A------, M------, and N------, llonourables
B------c, L------s, and F------s--General Trinket--Colonel
Caxon--Messrs. II--b--h, R------, D------, and B------,
and other Innumerables.
It was during the fashionable season of the year 1818, when Augusta
Corri, _ci-devant_ Lady Hawke,{1} shone forth under her newly-acquired
title a planet of the first order, that a few amorous noblemen and
wealthy dissolutes, ever on the _qui vive_ for novelty, projected and
sanctioned the celebrated Venetian carnival given at the Argyll-rooms
under the patronage of her ladyship and four other equally celebrated
courtezans. Of course, the female invitations were confined exclusively
to the sisterhood, but restricted to the planets and stars of Cytherea,
the carriage curiosities, and fair impures of the most dashing order and
notoriety; and never were the revels of Terpsichore kept up with more
spirit, or graced with a more choice collection of beautiful, ripe, and
wanton fair ones.
1 In page 315 of our first volume we have given a brief
biographical sketch of her ladyship and her amours.
~36~~Nor was there any lack of distinguished personages of the other
sex; almost all the leading _roues_ of the day being present, from Lord
p******** Tom B***, including many of the highest note in the peerage,
court calendar, and army list. The elegance and superior arrangement of
this Cytherean _fete_ was in the most exquisite taste; and such was the
number of applications for admissions, and the reported splendour of the
preparations, that great influence in a certain court was necessary to
insure a safe passport into the territories of the Paphian goddess. The
enormous expense of this act of folly has been estimated at upwards
of two thousand pounds; and many are the dupes who have been named as
bearing proportions of the same, from a royal duke to a Hebrew star of
some magnitude in the city; but truth will out, and the ingenuity of
her ladyship in raising the wind has never been disputed, if it has
ever been equalled, by any of her fair associates. The honour of the
arrangement and a good portion of the expense were, undoubtedly, borne
by a broad-shouldered Milesian commissary-general, who has since figured
among the ton under the quaint cognomen of General Trinket, from his
penchant for filling his pockets with a variety of cheap baubles, for
the purpose of making presents to his numerous Dulcineas; a trifling
extravagance, which joined to his attachment to _rouge et noir_ has
since consigned him to durance vile. The general is, however, certainly
a fellow of some address, and, as a master of the ceremonies, deserves
due credit for the superior genius he on that occasion displayed.
During dinner, Crony had been telling us a curious anecdote of the
great Earl of Chesterfield and Miss Debouchette, the grandmother of
the celebrated courtezans, Harriette Wilson and sisters. "At one of the
places of public entertainment at the Hague, a very beautiful girl of
the name of Debouchette, who ~37~~acted as _limonadiere_, had attracted
the notice of a party of English noblemen, who were all equally anxious
to obtain so fair a prize. Intreaties, promises of large settlements,
and every species of lure that the intriguers could invent, had
been attempted and played off without the slightest success; the fair
_limonadiere_ was proof against all their arts. In this state of
affairs arrived the then elegant and accomplished Earl of Chesterfield,
certainly one of the most attractive and finished men of his time, but,
without doubt, equally dissipated, and notorious for the number of his
amours. Whenever a charming girl in the humbler walks of life becomes
the star of noble attraction and the reigning toast among the _roues_
of the day, her destruction may be considered almost inevitable. The
amorous beaux naturally inflame the ardour of each other's desires by
their admiration of the general object of excitement; until the honour
of possessing such a treasure becomes a matter of heroism, a prize for
which the young and gay will perform the most unaccountable prodigies,
and, like the chivalrous knights of old, sacrifice health, fortune, and
eventually life, to bear away in triumph the fair conqueror of
hearts. Such was the situation of Miss Debouchette, when the Earl of
Chesterfield, whose passions had been unusually inflamed by the current
reports of the lady's beauty, found himself upon inspection that her
attractions were irresistible, but that it would require no unusual
skill to break down and conquer the prudence and good sense with which
superior education had guarded the mind of the fair _limonadiere_. To
a man of gallantry, obstacles of the most imposing import are mere
chimeras, and readily fall before the ardour of his impetuosity; 'faint
heart never won fair lady,' is an ancient but trite proverb, that always
encourages the devotee. The earl had made a large bet that he would
carry off the lady. In ~38~~England, among the retiring and the most
modest of creation's lovely daughters, his success in intrigues had
become proverbial; yet, for a long time, was he completely foiled by the
fair Debouchette. No specious pretences, nor the flattering attentions
of the most polished man in Europe, could induce the lady to depart from
the paths of prudence and of virtue; every artifice to lure her into
the snare of the seducer had been tried and found ineffectual, and his
lordship was about to retire discomfited and disgraced from the scene
of his amorous follies, with a loss of some thousands, the result of
his rashness and impetuosity, when an artifice suggested itself to the
fertile brain of his foreign valet, who was an experienced tactician in
the wars of Venus. This was to ascertain, if possible, in what part
of the mansion the lady slept; to be provided with a carriage and
four horses, and in the dead of the night, with the assistance of two
ruffians, to raise a large sheet before her window dipt in spirits,
which being lighted would burn furiously, and then raising the cry of
fire, the fair occupant would, of course, endeavour to escape; when the
lover would have nothing more to do than watch his opportunity, seize
her person, and conveying it to the carriage in waiting, drive off
secure in his victory. The scheme was put in practice, and succeeded to
the full extent of the projector's wishes; but the affair, which made
considerable noise at the time, and was the subject of some official
remonstrances, had nearly ended in a more serious manner. The brother of
the lady was an officer in the army, and both the descendants of a poor
but ancient family; the indignity offered to his name, and the seduction
of his sister, called forth the retributive feelings of a just revenge;
he sought out the offender, challenged him, but gave him the option of
redeeming his sister's honour and his own by marriage. Alas! that
was impossible; the earl was already engaged. A meeting took place,
~39~~when, reflection and good sense having recovered their influence
over the mind of the dissipated lover, he offered every atonement in his
power, professed a most unlimited regard for the lady, suggested that
his destruction would leave her, in her then peculiar state, exposed to
indigence, proposed to protect her, and settle an annuity of two hundred
pounds per annum upon her for her life; and thus circumstanced the
brother acceded, and the affair was, by this interposition of the
seconds, amicably arranged. There are those yet living who remember the
fair _limonadiere_ first coming to this country, and they bear testimony
to her superior attractions. The lady lived for some years in a state
of close retirement, under the protection of the noble earl, in the
neighbourhood of Chelsea, and the issue of that connexion was a natural
son, Mr. Debouchette, whom report states to be the father of Harriette
Wilson and her sisters.
'Ere man's corruptions made him wretched, he
Was born most noble, who was born most free.'
--Otway.
So thought young Debouchette; for a more wild and giddy fellow.in early
life has seldom figured among the medium order of society. Whether the
mother of the Cyprians was really honoured with the ceremony of the
ritual, I have no means of knowing," said Crony; "but I well remember
the lady, before these her beauteous daughters had trodden the slippery
paths of pleasure: there was a something about her that is undefinable
in language, but conveys to the mind impressions of no very pure
principles of morality; a roving eye, salacious person, and swaggering
carriage, with a most inviting condescension, always particularized the
elder silk-stocking grafter of Chelsea, while yet the fair offspring of
her house were lisping infants, innocent and beautiful as playful lambs.
Debouchette himself was a right jolly fellow, careless of domestic
~40~~happiness, and very fond of his bottle; and indeed that was
excusable, as during a long period of his life he was concerned in the
wine trade. To the conduct and instructions of the mother the daughters
are indebted for their present share of notoriety, with all the
attendant infamy that attaches itself to Harriette and her sisters:--and
this perhaps is the reason why Mrs. Rochford, alias Harriette Wilson, so
liberally eulogises, in her Memoirs, a parent whose purity of principle
is so much in accordance with the exquisite delicacy of her accomplished
daughter. As the girls grew up, they were employed, Amy and Harriette,
at their mother's occupation, the grafting of silk stockings, while the
junior branches of the family were operative clear starchers, as the
old board over the parlour window used to signify, which Brummel would
facetiously translate into getters up of fine linen, when Petersham
did him the honour of driving him past the door, that he might give
his opinion upon the rising merits of the family, who, like fragrant
exotics, were always placed at the window by their judicious parent, to
excite the attention of the curious. But, allons" said Crony, "we shall
be late at the carnival, and I would not miss the treat of such an
assemblage for the honour of knighthood."
A very few minutes brought Transit, Eglantine, Crony, and myself, within
the vortex of this most seductive scene. Waltzing was the order of the
night--
"Endearing waltz! to thy more melting tune
Bow Irish jig and ancient rigadoon;
Scotch reels avaunt! and country dance forego
Your future claims to each fantastic toe.
Waltz--Waltz alone both legs and arms demands,
Liberal of feet and lavish of her hands.
Hands, which may freely range in public sight,
Where ne'er before--but--pray 'put out the light.'"
A coruscation of bright eyes and beauteous forms shed a halo of delight
around, that must have warmed the cyprian's ball ~41~~the heart and
animated the pulse of the coldest stoic in Christendom. The specious M.
C, General O'M***a, introduced us in his best style, quickly bowing each
of us into the graces of some fascinating fair, than whom
"Not Cleopatra on her galley's deck
Display'd so much of leg or more of neck."
For myself, I had the special honour of being engaged to the Honourable
Mrs. J-- C******y, otherwise Padden, who, whatever may have been her
origin,{2} has certainly acquired the ease and elegance of
2 Mrs. Padden is said to have been originally a servant-maid
at Plymouth, and the victim of early seduction. When very
young,
coming to London with her infant in search of a Captain D----- in the
D--------e Militia, her first but inconstant swain, chance threw her
in her abandoned condition into the way of Colonel C-----, who was much
interested by her tale of sorrow, and more perhaps by her then lovely
person, to obtain possession of which, he took a house for her,
furnished it, and (as the phrase is) _set her up_. How long the duke's
_aide-de-camp_ continued the favourite lover is not of any consequence;
but both parties are known to have been capricious in _affaires de
cour_. Her next acknowledged protector was the light-hearted George
D-----d, then a great gun in the fashionable world: to him succeeded
an _amorous thane_, the Irish Earl of F-----e; and when his lordship,
satiated by possession, withdrew his eccentric countenance, Lord
Mo--f--d succeeded to the vacant couch. The Venetian masquerade is said
to have produced a long carnival to this _belle brunette_, who seldom
kept _Lent_; and who hero met, for the first time, a now noble Marquess,
then Lord Y--------, to whose liberality she was for some time indebted
for a very splendid establishment; but the precarious existence of such
connexions is proverbial, and Mrs. Padden has certainly had her share
of fatal experience. Her next paramour was a diamond of the first water,
but no star, a certain dashing jeweller, Mr. C-----, whose charmer she
continued only until kind fortune threw in her way her present constant
Jack. With the hoy-day of the blood, the fickleness of the heart ceases;
and Mrs. Padden is now in the "sear o' the leaf," and somewhat _passee_
with the town. It does therefore display good judgment in the lady
to endeavour, by every attention and correct conduct, to preserve an
attachment that has now existed for some considerable time. ~42~~Indeed
it is hardly possible to find a more conversational or attractive woman,
or one less free from the vulgarity which usually accompanies ladies of
her caste. With this fair I danced a waltz, and then danced off to my
friend Crony, who had been excused a display of agility on the score
of age, and from whom I anticipated some interesting anecdotes of the
surrounding stars. (See Plate.)
[Illustration: page042]
The Montagues, five sisters, all fine women, and celebrated as the stars
of Erin, shone forth on this occasion with no diminished ray of their
accustomed brilliancy; Mrs. Drummond, otherwise H--n Dr--y Ba--y,
Me--t--o, or Bulkly, the last being the only legal _cognomen_ of the
fair, led the way, followed by Maria Cross, otherwise Latouche, Matilda
Chatterton, Isabella Cummins, and Amelia Hamilton, all ladies of high
character in the court of Cytherea, whose amours, were I to attempt
them, would exceed in volumes, if not in interest, the chronicles of
their native isle. Among the most interesting of the fairy group was
the beautiful Louisa Rowley, since married to Lord L**c**les, and that
charming little rosebud, the captivating Josephine, who, although a mere
child, was introduced under the special protection of the celebrated Mr.
B***, who has since been completely duped by the little _intriguante_,
as also was hep second lover Lord p********? who succeeded in the lady's
favour afterwards; but from whom she fled to Lord H****t, since whose
death, an event which occurred in Paris, I hear she has reformed, and is
now following the example of an elder sister, by preparing herself for
the stage. "Who is that dashing looking brunette in the turban, that is
just entering the room?" inquired Transit, who appeared to be mightily
taken with the fair incognita. "That lady, with the mahogany skin and
_piquant_ appearance, is the favourite mistress of the poor Duke of
Ma**b****h," responded Crony, "and is no other than ~43~~the celebrated
Poll-----Pshaw! everybody has heard of the Queen of the Amazons, a title
given to the lady, in honour, as I suppose, of his grace's fighting
ancestor. Poll is said to be a great voluptuary; but at any rate she
cannot be very extravagant, that is, if she draws all her resources from
her protector's present purse. Do you observe that _jolie dame_ yonder
sitting under the orchestra? that is the well-known Nelly Mansell,
of Crawford-street, called the _old Pomona_, from the richness of her
_first fruits_. Nelly has managed her affairs with no trifling share
of prudence, and although in the decline of life, she is by no means
in declining circumstances. H**re the banker married her niece, and the
aunt's cash-account is said to be a very comfortable expectancy.