The commissioner: or, de Lunatico inquirendo / With twenty-eight illustrations on steel by Phiz [i.e. H.K. Browne] [Anon].

  • George Payne Rainsford James
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The commissioner: or, de Lunatico inquirendo / With twenty-eight illustrations on steel by Phiz [i.e. H.K. Browne] [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    brought uj) in indulgence and vice, should receive death as the punish- ment of his evil course, in the midst of rejoicing on his weddmg-day, seemed a strange and a terrible thing, and he felt the hand of wrath upon him. “ Come, Jerry,” he cried, “ I shall go to bed—the sooner I’m asleep the better.” He soon changed his mind, however ; for after Jerry had taken off his coat and waistcoat, and given him his dressing-gown and red night- cap, he said,— “ I don’t like going to bed, either, Jerry—There, give me down ‘Rochester’s Poems’ from the shelf.—Light the rushlight, and put down the candle here.” “ You had better go to bed, my lord,” said Jerry. “No, I won’t, by jingo!” said the peer. “There, that ’ll do— Hang my night-shirt over the back of the chair near me.” Jerry did as he was bid, and then took his departure. After he was gone I.ord Outrun sat for about half an hour in his arm-chair, reading the evil book he had chosen. At the end of that time he laid it down, put his hand to his head and said :— “ How devilish giddy I am—I am sick at the stomach, too.—I’ll ring, and have some brandy and water.” He rose for that ])urpose, but before he could reach the bell he reeled for a moment, his knees gave way under him, and he sunk down— slowly at first, but then with a heavy fall—and lay prone and senseless on the floor, with a loud and unnatural snoring issuing from his nos- trils. As he fell his head struck the shade of the rushlight slightly, but sufficiently to knock it over, and it fell against the foot of the chair on which his night-shirt was hanging. The next minute there came a little smoke, and theii a sudden flame caught the cloth, gave a flash, and went out again, caught it once more, and ])layed flickering and uncertain upon the edge, then crept slowly up, devouring as it went—the image of vice creeping over the human mind—slow, silent, flickering, destructive, and in tl>e end consuming all. In the meanwhile Jerry Tripe had returned to the dining-room, where he found Tom Hamilton still alone. “Jerry,” said the gentleman as he entered, “I wish you would go and tell those two blackguards in the library, that it is not decent, on a night like this, to be amusing themselves with backgammon. They had better take themselves off to bed, or out of the castle altogether. The rattling of the dice-box annoys me.” Jerry Tripe did as Tom Hamilton told him, and Messrs. Winterton and Darius went to bed. Tlie worthy butler then returned, and Tom Hamilton said whenever he entered— “Come, Jerry, there is much to be done. The first thing to-morrow, you must give notice to the coroner, and I suppose we had better leave the body where it is.” “Oh! certainlj^, Mr. Hamilton,” said Jerry; “but had you not better write to the coroner, or go and see him ?” “I do not half like it” replied Tom Hamilton. “The share I had