A NARROW ESCAPE
I had a narrow escape from a most terrible accident a few days after,
of a kind which I shall never forget as long as I live. As it happened
at the close of a day on which I saw several new things, I may as well
give a short account of that day, and finish with my narrow escape.
The carriage was ordered at twelve o’clock, and we drove to Regent’s
Park. I had on a new bonnet with a white lace veil, and looked
very nice. After driving once round the circle, we got out at the
Zoological Gardens, and went in to see the animals.
My little lady mamma first took me to see the parrots, and parroquets,
and macaws. Some of the macaws were all white; some white, with an
orange-colored topknot; some were green, with scarlet and blue in the
wings and tail, and with scarlet and white in their faces. Then they
had two or three very long, straight feathers in their tails and they
spoke to each other, and often scolded in a very hoarse voice. Some of
the parrots were all green, some all grey; but there was one of the
parroquets--a little bright-eyed, quick fellow,--who was nearly all
red, and had a funny, impudent crown of feathers of white and purple
upon the top of his head, but a very short tail. Now, as we were
looking at him, Lady Flora suddenly took a fancy to touch his short
tail--not with her own hand though, but with mine, which she poked
through the wires of his cage for that purpose. ‘Kark!’ cried the
little red, quick fellow, turning round very briskly and giving such
a peck at my hand. He just missed me, because the governess, who was
close by, instantly drew back my mamma’s arm and mine too, of course,
at the same time; the peck, however, fell upon the edge of the cage and
made a mark in the wood. This was a narrow escape, everybody would say;
still it is not the terrible one I shall presently have to relate.
After this, the same little quick fellow pretended his poll wanted
scratching, and held down his head to have it done for him, with his
eyes shut--one eye, though, not quite closed--and his head turned
rather sideways. ‘No, no!’ said the governess, ‘no, thank you, sir; you
only want to get another chance of a peck at our fingers!’ So we went
away, and then the little quick fellow looked up in a moment with such
a bright eye, and cried, ‘Kark! skrark!’
After this my mamma took me, all trembling as I was, to see the
monkeys. As she remembered the danger I had been in from the red
parroquet with the impudent topknot, Lady Flora did not put either of
my hands into any of the cages, but held me up in front of one of them,
that I might see the monkeys. Oh, how I wished for a voice to cry, ‘Not
so close, mamma! Do not hold me so close!’
The monkey who was nearest to the bars was the quietest of them. While
the others were running and skipping, and climbing all over the cage,
this one sat quite still, with his head bent down and his eyes looking
upon the floor; and now and then he looked into the black palm of
his little brown hand, with a very grave and earnest face, as if he
was considering something about which he was very anxious: when all
of a sudden he darted one arm through the bars of his cage, right at
my head, and just reached my white veil with his little brown hand!
He tore it quite off from the bonnet--ran up the wires in front,
squeaking and chattering--and the next moment we saw him at the back of
the cage, high up, sitting upon a small shelf tearing my veil all to
pieces, and showing us his white teeth, with round staring eyes, and
his mouth opening and shutting as fast as possible.
This also was a narrow escape, everybody will say; still it is not the
terrible one I shall almost directly have to relate.
We went to see the tigers and leopards, and while the governess was
looking at a zebra, we went too close to be safe, and also too close
to the bars of the elephant’s enclosure, so that he could have reached
us very well with his trunk; but none of these chances are like the
terrible escape I am now about to relate. I may well call it a terrible
one, because I might have broken my neck or my back, or both, besides
breaking the head of somebody else at the same moment.
We drove to the Edgeware Road, and down Park Lane to Mayfair, in order
to pay a visit to a lady of high rank, the Duchess of Guineahen; and
then straight home. After Lady Flowerdale, my mamma’s mamma, had dined,
I heard with the greatest delight that her ladyship intended to take
Lady Flora with her this evening to the Italian opera. Lady Flowerdale
had often before said that she thought my mamma was at present too
young to go to any place where the hours are always so late; however,
she determined to take her.
There was a great fuss in dressing both Lady Flora and myself, but at
last it was finished, and we were all impatience to go. I had on a new
pink silk frock, with a white lace scarf, and a lovely bouquet of the
sweetest flowers was placed in my sash. When we got into the carriage
Lady Flowerdale sat on one side, and my mamma and I on the other. We
seemed all silks, and muslins, and sparkles, and feathers, and appeared
quite to fill the carriage, so that there was not room for another
doll.
Out we got, and passed through the crowd and the soldiers at the door,
and up stone steps we went, and through passages full of silks, and
muslins, and lace, and jewels, and feathers, and chattering--and up
more steps, and along more passages, till at last we were in a little
box, and looked round into a great place full of little boxes, and deep
down upon a crowd below; and all the place was full of light, and the
same kind of silks, and muslins, and lace, and sparkles, and feathers,
and chattering, as we had found in the passages and on the stairs, all
of which we saw better on account of the dark coats of the gentlemen,
who were like the shadows of this picture of a house of fine ladies.
Lady Flora was placed near the edge of the box, as this was her first
visit to the opera. She held me in her arms with my head hanging a
little over the edge. Oh, how frightened I was, as I looked down! The
height was dreadful! There were indeed many rows above us, but there
were two below us, and it looked a terrible distance down into the
crowd at the bottom. ‘Oh,’ cried I to myself, ‘if my mamma would but
hold me tighter--I am so frightened!’
Well, the opera commenced, and it was very long. My little lady mamma
got quite tired and sleepy before it was half over, and continually
asked when the dancing would begin. But the opera still went on, and I
saw with alarm that her eyes grew very heavy, and every now and then
were shut.
[Illustration: I Fell Straight Into It!]
I saw in another box very near us another little lady of about my
mamma’s age, who had an opera glass in her hand, and was also leaning
over the edge of the box; and I thought, ‘Now if that small lady drops
the opera glass upon the head of some gentleman below in the pit, it
will only knock a bit of his head off; but if my small lady drops
me, I shall be knocked all to pieces!’
I had scarcely finished this reflection when, to my indescribable
alarm, I felt the hand that held me get looser and looser. Lady Flora
was fast asleep!
What feelings, what thoughts, were mine at that moment I cannot say,
for everything within me seemed mingled in confusion with everything
that was round me, and I did not know one thing from another. The hand
that held me got still looser!
Oh, dear me!--how shall I proceed? It was a moment, as the poet Henry
Chorley observes--
‘When all that’s feeble squeaks within the soul!’
The next moment I felt all was over with me! The hand of my sleeping
mamma opened--and down, down I fell into the dark pit below!
As my head was of solid wood and heavy, I fell head foremost; but, most
fortunate to relate, the gentleman who was just underneath was holding
up his hat, which was a new one, in order to prevent it being crushed
by the crowd, and I fell straight into it,--with such a thump, however,
that I half knocked out the crown, and my head poked through a great
crack on one side.
I was brought up to the box again by somebody--I had not sufficiently
recovered to know anything more, except that my little lady mamma was
still asleep, and now lay upon a small sofa at the back of the box,
covered over with a large French shawl. This, I think I may say, is
having had a narrow escape!
[Illustration]