"Where are you going?" called Musgrave, quickly following. "Anywhere-to the devil," exclaimed the other. What next ensued may be briefly told. Excited by passion and the wine he had already drunk, Vernon became the easy victim of his friend's artifice. The old maître d'hôtel was once more astonished by the impetuosity of Vernon's manner as he again put his services into requisition, at the bitter vehemence with which he pledged Musgrave in a singularly expressed toast, and at the eager haste with which the two gentlemen left the refreshment-room together. "Get up my brougham, you scoundrel," cried Musgrave, giving his name to Gruffy, whose head appeared just inside the portico as the door was opened. "Capt'in Musgray's broom," was the hoarse response of the crossingsweeper, not observing just then who was the captain's companion. The carriage was quickly brought up, this being the earliest departure, and Vernon and Musgrave advanced. The light flashed full in the face of the former, and Gruffy recognised his patron. "Bless yer art, Sir Ennery, I'm so glad to see yer!" was the poor fellow's joyful exclamation; and he laid hold of Vernon's cloak to arrest his progress. "Don't pester me, now," said Sir Henry, shaking him off somewhat roughly. "But I've sumthin' to say as you must 'ear, Sir Ennery!" They were already in the brougham, and the slamming of the door prevented Gruffy's last words from being heard. "He's a goin' to be put through the mill as sure as my name's Gruffy," soliloquised the crossing-sweeper. "I'll be off to Scotlingyard!" 66 To use the language of Superintendent Fellox of the G division, there was a tremendous shine" that night at the establishment in Jermynstreet known as "The Lodge." The police, guided by Gruffy, broke into the house and captured a saloon full of gamblers, a round dozen of them, as low a set of scoundrels as ever wore pins and watch-chains. They did more in an inner room, with a box of loaded dice in his hand, and playing with an antagonist, who was in a state of strange stupefaction, if not drunkenness, they made a seizure of a gentleman who gave the name of Tomkinson, but who was-as the Morning Post of the next day delicately and obscurely worded it, "C-pt-n M-sgr-ve, formerly of the L-fe G-rds." Without being much less explicit, we may add that the victim whom he had drugged, and was caught plundering, was Gruffy's patron, "the Rite Onnerable Sir Ennery Wernon." How Gruffy continues to prosper, though he will stick to his crossing in a new red jacket, and with a nice little pot of money accumulating in the "Simmertons" Savings-bank; how Captain Musgrave lives on his wits in Brussels, with "the crank" in perspective if he ventures to return to England; how Alexis de Clerval consoles himself without Miss Maynard's fortune; and how happy Sir Henry and Lady Vernon are all explanations over-may, in the words of a very distinguished writer for the newspapers, be "more easily conceived than described." THE AGE OF GOLD. BY CYRUS REDDING. LIFE cries to its waning years for gold- Men are daily, hourly wrangling, Ever grasping, and clasping, and craving, Ten times doubled let it be, Buy it with worth, or faith, or glory, But keep a mite to mask the juggling, Oh! sweet the sound metallic chinking, Welcome the raving and the rattling, Hell not greedier after gain, "More gold!" Then bless the goldman midst his piled-up treasure, Though a sea of toilsomeness his anxious cares may measure; How it flitters, how it glitters, How it twinkles, how it winkles as it dazzles his weak sight, While his thoughts are still descending Deeper in the mists of night, With the low things of earth ever blending! Awaking, or asleeping, Proud as Satan's self while creeping To his ingots safely stored Still crying at the chinking and the glitter of his hoard "More gold !" AN IMPERIAL VISIT. THE fact of the Emperor of the French and his consort having gone to sojourn at Dieppe, seems to have turned the heads of various towns in the north of France. "Of course they will come to us!" argued Boulogne; Calais repeated the same, and Dunkerque echoed it. It was known, or supposed, that his Imperial Majesty would visit the Camp at St. Omer: "A good opportunity," put in Calais and Dunkerque, "for his visiting us." Boulogne took it into its head-nobody is able to find out upon what grounds-that Monday, the 5th September, was the day fixed by the Emperor and Empress for their arrival in that town from Dieppe by sea. No end of preparations were made to receive them: people flocked into Boulogne from miles round: the streets were crowded as with a fair the whole day was passed on the tip-toe of agitated expectation and behold! the Imperial pair were quietly remaining at Dieppe, having no idea they were expected elsewhere. : Other towns, meanwhile, were voting large sums of money, and levying contributions on their inhabitants to amass them, for the purpose of making preparations for the Emperor's reception. But when it was known that their Majesties had returned to Paris from Dieppe, fears arose that the sanguine expectations had been indulged in vain. Soon, however, telegraphic despatches arrived from the Emperor, to the effect that upon his approaching visit to the Helfaut-Camp at St. Omer, he would gratify them all; and the embellishing processes went on with undiminished ardour. In no town were the loyal feelings, to judge by the preparations, more extensively displayed than in Dunkerque. For many weeks, various alterations and arrangements had been going on at the Sous Préfecture. Two bedrooms and dressing-rooms had been luxuriously fitted up for the Emperor and Empress; for, it was taken for granted that if they came at all to the town, they would sleep in it. The municipal council had met, and decided upon the manner of the reception; a committee had been formed to superintend the decorations of the streets; and nothing was heard, thought, or dreamt of in the city, but the arrival of their Majesties. A sudden damper came to it. It was announced, upon authority, that the Empress would not make one in the royal tour. The Dunkerque ladies were au désespoir. Twenty of these French-Flemish dames, and twenty demoiselles, had been fixed upon to form the Empress's "court" during her stay, and the unwelcome news that no Empress was to come, and that there would be no court to form, drove them nearly wild. They rushed to the Sous Préfecture. "Is it true ?" they gasped. "Mon Dieu, oui! on craint que c'est vrai," responded the wife of the Sous Préfet. "And all our expensive new dresses!" murmured the dames." They'll be quite useless to us! We can never hope for any other occasion of wearing them. Court dresses in Dunkerque! ma foi! Point d'es pérance!" "Our lovely white costumes and our wreaths and our flowers!" laNov.-VOL. XCIX. NO. CCCXCV. T mented, with tears in their eyes, the demoiselles, who were to have been the demoiselles d'honneur. "What was the use of having the dresses, if we are not to use them?" "Can't we form a court for the Emperor, if her Majesty does not come?" uttered one, in the very excess of desperation. It was a bright idea. A few of the more calm-thinking hesitated; but who could long think calmly in such a dilemma? So it was decided that the suggestion should be acted upon, and the Emperor furnished on his arrival (to his probable unbounded astonishment) with a court of ladies and maids of honour. But in the midst of the perplexity, there arrived down another despatch. "The Empress was coming." On went the preparations: nothing could equal the activity of the town; nothing exceed its importance and bustle; and the hopes of the dames and the demoiselles were again exalted into the seventh heaven. The ball, on the evening of the eventful day, was to be on a scale of unusual magnificence. The theatre, where it was to take place, was in active preparation; the pit was boarded over on a level with the stage; a flight of steps, leading to the centre box, from the arena, was constructed, the box was removed, and a dais erected, on which were placed two luxurious fauteuils, the letter N, emblazoned on the one, E, on the other. Everybody expected an invitation to the ball, and everybody got it-all the French and all the English. There was some consternation and discussion as to how the invited were to get in-if they all went : invitations being out, it was declared, for 3000, and the theatre holding, at a cram, 1200. "Don't go in flounces to your robes, especially of lace," echoed one lady to another; "they'll get torn to atoms in the crush." And the advice was good. Monday, the 26th of September, was the day fixed upon by the Emperor to be in Dunkerque. Four days previously, the decorations in the streets were commenced. Such a waste of time and money! No two streets were to be alike. A double line of poles, or masts, in the streets, with flags and streamers flying-to erect which poles, the pavement had to be partially taken up-were the first symptoms that gladdened the eyes of the curious pedestrians. Some of the poles were painted white and grey; some were completely covered with evergreens; others only partially so; a few with green branches and white calico, mixed, and twisted round. There were some streets that presented quite a succession of green bowers-wherever all the trees and the boughs and the shrubs came from, remains a puzzle yet green wreaths and festoons and flowers were drooped from pole to pole, and across the street from window to window; whole trees were transplanted for the occasion; and large street-chandeliers, peculiar to Dunkerque, composed of little pieces of thick glass, which wave and rattle pleasantly in the breeze, were suspended in the streets. The air was a perfect mass of flags, mostly of the tri-colour, not only flying from the poles and the cords and the festoons, but waving from every window. From three or four houses inhabited by loyal Englishmen, the glorious British flag, large and powerful, towered conspicuously. The Place Jean Bart, the Place, par excellence, of Dunkerque, intended itself to be especially elegant. Tri-coloured draperies of calico, blue, white, and red, were hung completely round it, on the walls of the houses: flags flew in abundance, and coloured lamps were with them, side by side. No end of eagles, in all the colours of the rainbow, and as brazen as gilt could make them, were hoisted atop of the houses and at the corners of streets. A beautiful triumphal arch, with a colossal eagle for its summit, was erected on the Place, at the commencement of the street leading to the Park: it looked like a shifting scene in a playhouse. Close by it waved an enormous flag or banner, green, with gold stars, the handsomest, people said, amongst the flags. From the top of the high tower, opposite the Grande Eglise, streamed out four or six long lines of little flags, carried out to a considerable distance, almost at a right angle, and there fastened to the ground. It had a wonderfully pretty effect, extending out like wings. What with the flags and the house draperies, the calico consumed must have been a quantity that never yet was consumed in any town before, and probably never will be again: for one street alone, and that not a very long one, 3000 metres were used; and French metres, remember, are longer than English yards. At the end of the Rue de l'Eglise, leading on to the port, the fishermen erected a triumphal arch, the component parts of the structure being barrels and fishing-nets. On the port where the Emperor would proceed to view the new works, was another archway, raised by the harbour workmen; and this was constructed of wheelbarrows, shovels, and pumps; not your household yard-pumps, but chain-pumps : streamers of which were brought down and fastened out on either side, after the manner of the flags from the tower. It looked capital, and so the Emperor thought. Sunday, the 25th, was a most bustling day, as it always is in France, and the workmen were busy with their preparations in all parts of the town. But a gloom hung around, for the day was cold, windy, and pouring wet. In spite of the pretty streets, and the green shrubs, and the draperies, and the clusters of coloured lamps, and the fine arches, and the chandeliers, and the flags, and the streamers, everybody looked glum ; for, with this weather, what pleasure would there be on the morrow? The Emperor and Empress had arrived that morning at St. Omer, from Lille, and many people flocked from Dunkerque to see them. They rode to the camp at Helfaut in a close carriage. The Emperor mounted a superb charger to review the troops; the Empress, with two of her ladies, remained in the carriage. Crowds upon crowds rushed to the camp, and enjoyed themselves there on foot, ladies as well as gentlemen, the rain coming down in torrents, and the slop knee deep. A worse day could not be imagined. Shoes were lost in the mud and abandoned; boots had to be cut off the foot piecemeal, and dresses and bonnets, the greater portion of them, will never go on again. "Never mind ourselves," cried the excited and loyal spectators; "if we are wet, the Emperor's dripping-look at him!" Why could not the people keep in the carriages that conveyed them thither? inquires the English reader. Because the camp is situated on the plateau of a high and lofty hill, what many would call a mountain; the ascent to which is somewhat formidable; and French hired horses, and French hired vehicles, and French hired coachmen, not being cast in the adventurous mould, they flatly refused to go up it. So they remained comfortably at the bottom, and the company they had conveyed thither toiled to the top on foot, |