University of Virginia Library

1. CHAPTER I.

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.

An officer pacing the quarter deck of the yacht seemed too much absorbed
in his own meditations to regard these features of the scene by which he was
surrounded. He was a man about thirty-nine years of age, wearing the undress
uniform of a first lieutenant in the British naval service. He was tall in
stature and well made, with an air of high birth. He was walking very slowly
and thoughtfully up and down the starboard side of the snow-white deck.
At times he would by degrees relax his pace and then stop altogether, as if
buried so deeply in his thoughts as to be unconscious of the motions of his
body. At such times his lips would be severely and closely compressed, his
dark-gray eye would look black beneath the scowl of his contracting brows,
and nervously clenching his fingers in the palm of his hand would give utterance
to a suppressed groan of exquisite suffering. Then recalled to the recollection
of himself, by the sound he would start abrubtly to resume his walk,
and for a few moments pace fore and aft with a quick stern troubled tread.

The yacht was one of the most beautiful craft that ever sat upon the water.
She was about one hundred and eighty tons burden, and constructed with an
eye to the most perfect symmetry, as well as speed in sailing. She carried
six brass long eighteens, and fifty men stationed and quartered as in ships in
the service. Her officers consisted of a captain, two junior lieutenants and
three midshipmen—mere lads. The captain was so styled in courtesy, though
his rank was only that of a first lieutenant; but his connection with a branch
of the royal family had conferred upon him this favored command and the title
of course followed the temporary promotion.

The officers, save the Captain, were now in the cabin at supper, and the
men forward idly gazing on the shores, or watching the craft in the river, or
spinning to each other, with all the superstitious awe of English tars, fearful
tales of deeds done in `The Tower,' the black and menacing towers of which
flung their gloomy shadows far over the deck of the yacht. The yards of
this vessel were squared and her sails furled with the nicest precision. She
was a schooner-brig, being a brig only forward. Her appearance upon the water
was at once elegant and rakish. Her long slender masts inclined so far

over her stern, that her silken pennon, when there was no wind to blow it out,
hung perpendicularly down far beyond her davits. The yards were like pencils
and her royal masts were so long and delicately tapering that they bent
and swayed with gracetul elasticity at the gentle force with which a light wind
was now pressing upon them. The masts and spars were of a polished black
hue, and nothing to a seaman's eye could be more beautiful than the finished
and nautical-like arrangement of her standing and running rigging. Not a
rope was out of place, not a lift or halyard that was not in its place. As the
yacht was built for pleasure, to convey the Royal party only to the mouth of
the Thames, and sometimes, in sunny weather round to Portsmouth, and even
to the Isle of Wight, she was not very deep, but sat as lightly and gracefully
upon the water as a swan. Her hull was perfectly black save a scarlet line
running along the top of her bul warks fore and aft. All her appointments
were of the highest order. Ornmament and use were tastefully united in her
internal arrangements, and the richness and splendor of her cabins were truly
royal. The seamen were picked men and wore a peculiar nautical uniform,
neat and appropriate.

This beautiful warlike looking yacht as she rode proudly at her anchor, amid
the river-craft, which had hove short, or veered out more cable to give her a
large space, seemed like a queen among her vassals. She had been laying
there, this was the third day, and with that mystery which always envelopes
whatever belongs to Royalty, had held no communication with other vessels,
nor given any clue towards gratifying the curiosity of those who were conjecturing
what her business could be lying so long and perseveringly opposite
the Tower.

The officer upon her deck after a few more hurried turns during which his
fine face, (for his features were noble and handsome though strangely distorted
now by inward emotions and passions,) suddenly stopped as a young midshipman
appeared upon deck, and cried, sternly,

`Lower away third cutter!'

`Aye, aye, sir,' answered the reefer, who was a fine looking little scion of
nobility, in a very handsome uniform and brown hair curling profusely over
his shoulders. `Third cutter away!'

The boatswain's whistle piped shrilly the call to the crew of the cutter, and
in two minutes the boat was in the water under the starboard gangway, awaiting
the captain; for such was the rank of the person who had given the order.
Side-boys lined the gangway awaiting him, while `the reefer' had delibe rately
taken his place in the boat as coxswain.

`My lord,' said the captain to the midshipman, `I shall take the coxswain
with me!'

The youth, with a disappointed look, reascended the gangway and the captain
of the yacht entered the cutter and took his seat upon the crimson velvet
cushions in the stern, and, wrapped in his cloak, sat in silence.

`Let fall and give way!' cried the coxswain; and the cutter pulled swiftly
from the side of the vessel and steered in the direction of the Tower stairs, over
which the shades of night were now thickly gathering.

`What in the deuce is the matter with the skipper of late?' exclaimed young
Percy in inimitable ill-humor, as he followed the cutter in its progress with his
eyes. `Dauling is getting savage. I meant to have gone ashore and had a
guinea's worth of the opera to night, but instead of that I have got to entertain
myself with listening to the howling of dogs from the shore, and watching
the dancing of the waters under the counter! What has got into the captain
of late, Barron?'

`That is impossible to tell;' answered a young mid a year older than Percy,
with a dark Italian face and features of great beauty, yet resolute and minly.

`He hasn't been the same man the last two days! He looks as black as the
old donjon of the Tower there, and it's about as safe to go near the one as the
other. The truth is, Fred, I had a curiosity to see what becomes of him at
night when he goes ashore, and meant to have kept an eye on his steps. Something
is in the wind!'

`Perhaps he has incurred the King's displeasure,' answered Alfred Barron.

`Dauling wouldn't care much for that. He doesn't love his Majesty much;
but that's between you and me!'

`And yet the King appointed him to this yacht. His Majesty cant suspect
his hostility to him!'

`I dont think he does. Yet I shouldn't be surprised if he had been shewing
it some way, and it is the fear of losing by it that vexes him. For it was after
his return from the palace two days ago he began to look so confoundedly
black! Something's to windward and he feels ugly!'

`There is no doubt a weight is on his mind. He has eaten nothing to day;
and all he has done is to pace up and down the starboard side of the quarter
deck like a chained lion.'

`See! the cutter does not land at the Tower stairs, but is pulling up along
the shipping to the upper pier-stairs. Well, let him go so I cant go with
him!'

`Do you know what we are laying here for, Percy?'

`No, answered the reefer, as he took an impatient turn across the decks.—
`Perhaps to take the queen and the small ones to a sea-airing.'

`It is my opinion we are to perform quite a different service. We dont usually
wait for her Majesty off the Tower. If we had been going to take any of
the Royal family on a pleasure-trip to the mouth of the Thames, we should
have pulled higher up and lay off St. James' stairs. I think,' he added in a low
voice, `I think we are waiting for a state prisoner!'

`Who?'

`That I cannot tell!'

`It may be so. We shall know soon, as we are hove short, and ready for a
moment's move!'

`Can you see the cutter now?'

`No. It is lost in the darkness and confusion of the crowd of river-craft.—
We shall know all in good time I dare say, what we are here for. Here comes
the first luff out of the cabin, with a Spaniard in his mouth. Let us imitate
his example as becomes modest reefers!'

Thus speaking the juvenile nobleman of seventeen took two cigars from a
silver box he carried in a fob made for its reception, and presenting one to
Barron lighted the other with an ingenious apparatus contained in a compartment
of the cigar-case.

The two young men then walked aft, and seating themselves very comfortably
upon the taffrail proceeded to smoke their fragrant Habaneros with the
appearance of great personal enjoyment.

When the cutter, after quitting the vessel, had got within twenty fathom of
the Tower stairs where it had hitherto been accustomed to land the commander
of the Royal yacht, he roused himself from his thoughts and looking round
said sternly,

`Not there! steer the boat to the St. James stairs.'

The coxswain obeyed and the cutter, instead of continuing on towards the
Tower, the base of which lay in dark shadows, began to ascend the river parallel
with the shore. The river bank was lined with shipping and bordered
with houses closely crowded together, with here and there the narrow opening
of a s reet leading into the heart of the metropolis. The lamps were already
lighted, and as the cutter shot by one street after another, momentary glimpses
were obtained of the long double lines of lamps with fine effect. The numerous
wherries, skiffs and other boats which filled the river, crossing it in every
direction; the noise of so many bodies rushing swiftly through the water; the
occasional song of a wherry-man rising clear on the calm evening air, for the
wind had now gone entirely down; the `heave-ho-yeo,' of seamen getting their
anchors; the roar of wheels thundering with ceaseless reverberations over the
pavements of the city; the shouting of men to one another; and an alarum of
fire in the distance with the wild glow of a conflagration lighting up of the
horizon, were the features of the scene and of the moment as the cutter kept
her way steadily along through the mazes of the thronged mart.

Without heeding any of these things the commander, after giving the brief
order to the coxswain to change the course of the boat, resumed his former
silence, from which he was only aroused by the cutter's bows touching the foot
of St. Jame's stairs. Rising up he sprung to the shore.

`Return to the yacht and come for me at twelve o'clock,' he said half turning

round to give the order. He then rapidly ascended the stairs, and the
next moment was traversing at a rapid step one of the dark dingy thoroughfares
that lead from that quarter of London to the west part of the city.

He kept on his way enveloped to the mouth in his cloak, and with his cap,
which was an ordinary French travelling-cap, pulled down over his eyes as if
to escape recognition. On reaching the extremity of the lane up which he
had come, he did not turn to the right into the wide and spacious avenue
which led towards the better part of the town, but deviated to the left, taking
a close, crooked street which seemed to wind through the very heart of the
oldest and most obscure portion of the metropolis. As he advanced along this
tortuous thoroughfare his step was quicker and his arm moved beneath his
cloak as if he was grasping the hilt of a short dagger. The place was by no
means calculated to increase the confidence of one passing through it. The
houses on either side were very high and seemed to be crowded with teuants
like a bee-hive, though without the bee's industry; for all seemed to be steeped
in poverty, and idle and vicious. The lower stories were converted into
miserable stalls and drinking-taps, the doors of which were thronged with a
motley set of both sexes, who seemed congregated around them for no other
object than to quarrel and cause confusion. Police officers were seen at intervals
slowly promenading the side-walks, but their familiar presence there
scarce seemed to check the confusion of oaths, obscenity and drunken laughter!

It was with difficulty the commander of the yacht kept his way without contact
with these filthy crews,from whom,if he jostled any one by chance,he received
the fiercest execrations. He, however, continued his course with a firm,
prompt tread, di regarding their menaces, yet with an eye and hand ready to
discern and guard against any ruffianly attack.

At length he reached the end of this vile thoroughfare and passed by turnin
to the right into one that was a little wider but scarcely of better appearance.
Its aspect and features, however, were different. The side-walks on
both sides were lined with rows of shops dimly lighted. The windows and
the inside of the doors were hung with every possible variety of cast-off clothing
from a rich court-suit down to a poor scrivener's thread-bare black coat.
Chapeaus and round hats, military caps and even swords and pistols were displayed
upon the shelves. The interiors were filled with articles of wardrobe,
and behind each counter could be seen old men with dark visages, arched
eye-brows, large black eyes, high aqueline noses, generally mounted with a
pair of iron-rimined spectacles. They were Jews, and this street was the
quarter where they did business not only in cast-off wardrobes, but also most
of them were money-dealers: for wretched as some of their shops and the
habitations above them for their families were, they were far richer than they
seemed, and many of them had thousands of pounds loaned at usurious interest
to the merchant and the noble.

Tudor Dauling, for such was the name of the personage whose progress we
are now following, after entering this thoroughfare of the Jews slackened his
pace and kept his eyes scrutinizingly fixed on the smoky signs on the opposite
side of the way; for although the lamps of the street were far apart, and gave
but dim light to the dark pavements, yet the murky light from the farthing
candles in the shop windows enabled him to distinguish one sign from another,
though with some difficulty. He seemed to be endeavoring to ascertain
the location of some one of the tenants of the shop in particular, as if not
sufficiently familiar with the place to recognize its exterior. At length he
stopped and searchingly regarded the one opposite to him, he succeeded in
making out the half-obscured letters on the sign. It was `Enoch Moloch,
Jeweler and dealer in apparel.'

It was but five steps across the street to the sunken doorway of this tenements
which was half shop, half habitation. The stories of the ancient row
of houses to which it belonged, rose one above the other to a great height
above the low door-way, of the ground story, which appeared to have been
pressed into the ground full four feet by the superincumbent weight of the
black mass of damp and mouldy bricks above it.

Over the door and the square window on the side, projected a sort of roof

or `stoope' which turned off the rain from the `old-clothes' which in the daytime
hung from a hundred nails driven into the shutters and into the mortar between
the corroding bricks. This projection was at a level lower than the
heads of the passengers, so that a person entering a shop would have to stoop
to avoid bringing his head in contact with it: and to get fairly within the shop
he would have to descend two steps. As it was now night, Enoch Moloch the
Jew had taken in or rather his two apprentices, black-eyed Israeliteish youths
of his own blood, had done it at his command, all the motley array of scarlet,
green and blue, gray, black and mixed garments that served to the passers-by
as an advertisement of the occupation of the keeper of the shop.

The neighbors of the Jew were all his brethren, dealers in the same commodities,
and the captain of the yacht as he crossed the street towards the
shop of Enoch saw them variously occupied in their stalls, some in smoking
huge German pipes, others in bargaining with customers, others standing in
their doors talking, and waiting for customers to come in and buy. In Enoch's
shop he could discern no one but a Jewish lad in a red cap who sat upon a
high stool smoking a short pipe, his black eyes shining like stars through the
clouds of tobacco in which he was enveloping his brown face.

As Dauling stooped and descended into this stall the lad jumped from his
elevated seat on which he was perched and, in a shrill voice, while he bustlingly
displayed upon the short counter, a handsome, half-worn court-dress
which Enoch had no doubt bought at a bargain:

`Sheep sir at doo poun' sax shaylin'! worn birt'-day last, py te kreatest Dook
in te hoal kingtom! Puy it, sir! Jis' fit a nople shentleman like you as!'

`Where is the Jew?' demanded Captain Dauling with an impatient manner,
still keeping his features closely concealed as if fearful of being recognized
by any chance passer-by the door; though the dimness of the two yellowish
tallow candles that were stuck up in rusty iron-sockets in the shop, afforded
sufficient security.

`Fader!' cried the lad in a shrill octave directing his voice towards a narrow
stair case, the door of which was half hid by hanging garments; `dere ish
a shentlemans in te shoop as don't want to puy nothin' put to see you!'

In answer to his call a young girl made her appearance, with fine Jewish
eyes, and an air of the most finished coquetry. She was not more than eighteen
but was tall and nobly formed. She wore a scarlet satin closely fitting her
finely developed bust, and affording by its bright cherry hue, a striking relief
to her jet black hair and nut-brown complexion. A necklace of rubies sparkled
upon her beautifully mouldered neck, and on her bare arms were bracelets
the stones of which emitted the same rich crimson light. Her shoes which
were wonderfully small, were crimson and covered with spangles, and the
heels being full two inches in height, gave her, perhaps, a false height.

`My uncle desires to know what your business is, sir?' she said with a
searching investigation of her eyes, to discover the features that belonged to
the stately figure before her. She spoke in a richly-keyed flute-like tone that
fell upon the ear with delightful cadences; while her manner was at once
graceful and refined, while it partook, perhaps, something of independence
and pride of conscious beauty.

`I have been here once before, Mademoiselle Rachel! You do not seem to
recollect me,' answered the commander of the yacht in a voice that was accompanied
by a slight smile. As he spoke he raised the visor of his cap.

`I will tell my uncle who it is,' she said, smiling with recognition and assuming
an air of profound respect.

`But do you know, fair Jewess?' he demanded quickly.

`I know that you have been here before and that you are one of his friends!'
she answered with an emphasis on the last word.

`Yes, one of his friends!' be repeated in a tone of haughty contempt, as she
re-ascended the stair-way. `To do business with these money-dealers, one
must be content for the time being to stand on a level with them. Money
makes all upon an equality while we trade in it! Nay, it sometimes makes
slaves masters. The poor noble may sue to the rich Israelite, aye, fawn upon
him to handle his vile gold without which nobility were mockery! But I am

not troubled with nobility, though scarce a nobleman in England has such
blood flowing in his veins as —'

Here the return of the Jewess interrupted his soliloquy.

`My uncle desires me to conduct you to him,' she said descending to the
shop and directing him with a gesture of her hand to mount the stairs, while
she drew aside a Scottish plaid that half-obscured the passage.

The captain of the yacht passed her slightly bowing in deference to her sex
and beauty, and aided by a glimmer of a light at the top of the flight, which
was both narrow and angular, he succeeded in reaching the landing, though
the planks bent beneath his heavy tread as he ascended.

On reaching this place she passed him, took up the lamp, which was a curious
silver one, and leading the way along a sort of common hall, came to a
heavily made door at which she tapped with her fingers.

`Come in,' answered a deep voice in a strong Jewish accent.

The Jewess threw open the door and the captain passed in, the entrance
being immediately closed behind him upon the outside by his conductress.