| | 1 | Author: | Ingraham
J. H.
(Joseph Holt)
1809-1860 | Add | | | Title: | The clipper-yacht, or, Moloch, the money-lender!  | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | On a mid-summer's evening so long ago as the year 1803, a King's Yacht
was laying at anchor in the river Thames, a cable's length below the tower of
London. The twilight was still early, the glow of sunset yet diffusing a rich
blush over the warm, hazy skies. The confused hum of the vast city rolled
over the water mingled with the deep tones of a bell from some distant tower.
A thin, dreamy-looking mist enveloped like a veil of gauze the thousand masts
that densely crowded the piers, and half-obscured the spires and turrets
scarce less numerous. Above the place where the yacht lay, there stretched,
in majestic arches, the series of noble bridges that span the Thames, their
avenues thronged with multitudes passing and repassing on foot and in carriges.
The sound of feet and wheels in their ceaseless passage fell upon the
ear louder than the roar of the opposed current of the river, as it rushed like
the rapids of a mountain stream between the strong arches beneath. `May it please your majesty, it is with regret I have to inform your majesty
that in consequence of an accident which last night occurred to the yacht
by the carelessness of a coal-barge skipper, whereby my bowsprit was carried
away and other damage done which it will take three or four days to repair,
it is out of my power to render obedience to your majesty's commands last
night received. I await your majesty's further pleasure. I shall depart in one hour for the Tower
and go on board, or rather, be taken, en masque as the prisoner of state, on
board the yacht with my party of Police-men! Sir John informs me that the
repairs are already completed, and that the schooner will be ready to sail, down
the river with the first turn of the tide. Then getting Tudor to anchor under
the guns of the frigate at the mouth, we can dictate our own terms to him!—
Tudor has not yet been on board; but I have ascertained that he made his appearance
at the Bank at noon and called for the draft holding the amount in
notes in his open pocket-book. The cashier who suspects nothing, voluntarily
informed me as I entered the banking-house, that he had come to take up the
draft, not knowing that it was paid already. `When I told him that your grace
had taken it up in person,' said the banker to me, `he said that it was all very
well; that you had given him the funds to take it up, as he was coming into
town, not expecting to be in London yourself!' The writer has positive evidence that the plot you have arranged
for the purpose of banishing your son from England, is known to him through
means of a letter taken from your table to-day. In a word, the person who
returned the letter to you was no other than your son, lord Tudor, disguised
as a peasant. He returned the letter to lull all suspicions of his having learned
the contents. His object in being in disguise near your palace was to get
early intelligence respecting the fate of the forged draft your grace held! | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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