The String of Pearls 127A Large Party Visits Big Ben and the Lions in the Tower
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Literature · Crime, Thrillers & Mystery
The String of Pearls 127
A Large Party Visits Big Ben and the Lions in the Tower
PrestEnglish
On the morning following the committal of Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney Todd to Newgate for trial, a rather large party met at the office of Sir Richard Blunt, in Craven Street, Strand. The fact was that after the proceedings at the police-office, Big Ben had earnestly besought them all to name the day to visit him and the lions in the Tower, and as no day was so convenient to Sir Richard as that immediately following, it was arranged that they were all to meet at the private office in Craven Street, and go there by water to the Tower.
The sun shone beautifully; and to look at that party no one would have supposed that there had ever been such persons as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett in the world.
The party consisted of Colonel Jeffery, Tobias, Mr. and Mrs. Oakley, Minna Gray, Johanna, Mark Ingestrie, Arabella Wilmot, and the fruiterer's daughter from Fleet Street, who had been so kind to Johanna during that very sad and anxious time that she had passed while in the temporary service of Todd.
So happy-looking and smiling a party surely could not have been found in all London, as they made up. It will be seen that there were no less than three couples intent upon matrimony, for although it was understood that Tobias was to wait two years yet before he married, he looked as happy as the rest.
A large eight-oared barge was at the stairs at the bottom of the street to convey them, and as they all walked to it arm-in-arm, and in couples, everybody who met them would have it that it was a wedding, and many jocular remarks were made to them by the way.
"Upon my word," said Sir Richard, "I shall be considered a match-maker, and folks will say that I keep this office of my own only as a matrimonial speculation."
"You certainly," said the colonel, "have been the cause of two or three matches, at all events, for, but for you, I doubt if any of us would have felt as we feel to day, Sir Richard."
"He has restored Mark Ingestrie to me," said Johanna.
"And my Johanna to me," said Ingestrie.
"And my dear Minna to me," cried Tobias.
"Stop--stop!" cried Sir Richard.
"And I am quite certain," said the colonel, "that I owe to him the joy of calling Arabella mine."
Sir Richard Blunt came now to a halt, as he said--
"Stop, all of you, or I will not go one step further. If we get into this kind of talk, who is to say where it will end? Let us enjoy ourselves, and make it a rule to say anything but revert to the past. It has its joys and its sorrows, but it had better upon this occasion be left to itself."
"Agreed--agreed," said everybody.
The barge was a very handsome one. Indeed Sir Richard Blunt had borrowed it of one of the city companies for the occasion, and beneath the gay awning they could all sit with perfect ease.
And now in the course of another five minutes they were going down the river, quite at a slashing pace, towards the old Tower; and as they were animated by the many pleasing sights upon the river, their conversation soon became animated and spirited.
"What is that?--A wherry coming towards us from the Temple-stairs," said the colonel.
All eyes were bent upon the wherry, which shot out from the little landing-place by the side of the Temple Gardens, and presently they, with one accord, cried out--
"It's Hector!"
In truth Hector was there, but with him was the colonel's new groom, the late ostler, who had been so efficient a protector to the dog, and the captain of the ship, whom he knew so well.
"Barge a-hoi!" cried the captain.
"Ay--ay!" shouted Ingestrie in reply, and the wherry shot alongside the barge.
"Well," said the captain, "I do think for you all to go on such a party as this, and not ask me and Hector, is too bad."
"But," said Sir Richard Blunt, "you told me you were going to be very busy at the docks."
"So I did, but I found our owner had not come to town, and I have nothing to do to-day. I called at your house, colonel, hoping to be in time to come with you, but you had gone. Hector, however, saw me, and made such a racket I was forced to bring him."
"And no one can be more glad to see you and Hector than I," cried the colonel.
"And I didn't like, sir," said the ostler, "not for to come for to go, when Pison said as he'd like to come."
"Very good," said the colonel smiling. "Come on board."
The waterman who was with the wherry laid it alongside the barge, and having been liberally paid for his freight, rowed off again, leaving with the barge party, his two customers and the dog.
The Tower was soon in sight, for at that time there were not by any means so many obstructions to the navigation of the River Thames as are to be found now, and the stream too was very much clearer than now it can boast of being. The host of manufactories that have since risen upon its banks were not then thought of.
"I do think," said Colonel Jeffery, "that I can see our friend Ben at the landing place. Look, Mr. Oakley, is that not Ben?"
"Bless you, sir," said Mr. Oakley, "I couldn't see so far if you would make me king of England for doing so. Johanna, my love, you have young eyes, and know Ben well."
"Yes, pa, it is Ben, and he is waving his hand to us, and looks so pleased."
"He is a most worthy honest fellow," said Sir Richard Blunt. "I like him very much, from what little I have seen of him. He has the simplicity of a child."
"Yes," added the colonel, "and the candour and honesty of a lover of human nature. I believe a better heart than Ben's never beat in human bosom."
"I am quite sure of it," said Johanna. "I love Ben very much indeed. He has been ever a kind and indulgent friend to me."
"Do you hear that, Mr. Ingestrie?" said Arabella.
"Yes," laughed Mark, "but I decline investing Ben with any of the attributes of a rival. Now, I love you, Miss Wilmot very much indeed, because you have always been such a dear kind friend to Johanna; and I daresay the colonel will permit me to do so."
"To be sure I will--at a distance," said the colonel.
Everybody laughed at this, and then, as the rowers increased their exertions to come in to the Tower stairs with some eclat, the barge soon was safely moored at the landing place.
"Here you are all of you," cried Ben, capering in his huge delight. "Here you all are. Come along. Oh, how hungry I am."
"That sounds as if you meant to eat us, Ben," said Sir Richard, as he stepped from the barge.
"Oh, dear no. Only I have got a little bit of lunch ready for you all, and as I helped to place it on the table it made me so hungry that I've been half mad ever since, and I'm as thirsty too as can be. Oh, Mr. Jeffery, I often think if the Thames were only strong ale, what a place the Tower would be."
"You may depend," said Sir Richard, "if it were, the government would pretty soon bottle it all off."
Johanna was going to step on shore, but Ben made a dash at her, and lifting her up as you would some little child, he seated her on his left arm, and so fairly carried her into the Tower.
"You wait, Miss Arabella," he cried. "I'll come for you."
This so alarmed Miss Wilmot that she sprang on shore in a moment, and all the party laughed heartily to see Mark Ingestrie flying along after Ben, and shouting as he went--
"Put her down--put her down! Ben!--Ben! She'd rather walk. Put her down!"
Ben paid no manner of attention to any of these remonstrances, but carried Johanna right into the Tower before he set her upon her feet again, which he then did as tenderly as though she had been some infant, only just learning to walk.
"Mind how you go," he said. "Take it easy. Easy does it."
"But I can walk, Ben."
"Very good. Mind how you does, you nice little thing. Oh, I likes you a great deal better in the petticoats and not the breeches."
"Well, Ben," said Mark Ingestrie, "I am certainly very much obliged to you--very much, indeed."
"Don't mention it, my boy," replied Ben, totally oblivious of the manner in which Mark Ingestrie uttered the words--a manner which betrayed some little pique upon the occasion. The laughter of Johanna and his friends, however, soon chased away the temporary cloud.
"Where's the t'other little one?" said Ben.
"I am here," cried Arabella, laughing.
"Oh, you got on without me, did you? Very good: only if you had only waited, I shouldn't have thought it no trouble at all, whatsomedever. Easy does it, you know."
"Thank you, Ben. I'd just as soon walk, and a little rather, perhaps, of the two. It was quite amusing enough to see you carry Johanna."
"Well--well, there ain't much gratitude in this world. Come on, all of you, for you must be famished; and as for me, I haven't had a bit of anything to eat for a whole hour and a half, and then it was only a pound and three quarters of beef-steak, and a half quartern loaf!"
"But we are none of us hungry," said Johanna.
"Never mind that," replied Ben, "you don't know what you may be; so always eat when you can get it. That's my maxim, and I find it answers very well. Plenty to eat and drink, and taking things easy, is how I get through the world, and you'll all on you find it the best in the long run."
"There are worse philosophies than that going," said Sir Richard Blunt to Colonel Jeffery.
"Very much worse," laughed the colonel.
Ben now led the way along a narrow arched passage, and through two rather gloomy corridors to a stone room, with a grand arched roof, in the ancient fortress; and there, sure enough, they found the little snack, as he called it, laid out very nicely for their reception.
A table ran along the centre of the room, and at one end of it there was placed an immense round of corn beef. At the other was a haunch of mutton, weighing at least thirty pounds. Somewhat about the middle of the table was an enormous turkey; and those dishes, with a ham and four tongues, made up a tolerable repast.
Six half-gallon flagons, filled with old Burton Ale, stood at regular distances upon the table.
"It's only," said Ben, "a slight snack, after all; but I hope you will be just able to find enough."
"Enough!" cried Sir Richard. "Why, there's enough for fifty people."
"There's almost enough for a regiment!" said the colonel.
"Oh, you are joking," said Ben; "but come, sit down. You, father Oakley, sit here by this little bit of mutton, and I'll cut up the beef."
After considerable laughing they were all seated; and then Ben, finding that Johanna was on one side of him, and Miss Wilmot on the other, declared that he was quite satisfied.
He cut, first of all, a cold tongue in halves down the middle lengthways, and placed one half upon a plate for Johanna, and the other on a plate for Arabella. Then upon the tongue in each plate, he placed about a pound of ham.
"Take that, my little dears," he said, "to begin with, and don't be sparing now, for there's the turkey and the mutton, you know, to fall back upon. Easy does it."
The room resounded with shrieks of laughter at the looks of utter distressful dismay which Johanna and Arabella cast upon their plates; and Ben looked from one face to another in perfect astonishment, for he could not see any joke for the life of him.
"Dear Ben," said Johanna, "do you really imagine we can eat a tenth part of all this?"
"Do I imagine?--In course I does. Only you begin. Lord bless you, that ain't much. Come--come, you want your ale, I suppose. So here it is."
Upon this, Ben poured them each out about a quart of the strong ale, and requested them to take an easy pull at that.
They found that it was of no use requesting Ben to diminish the quantity he helped them to; so they just, as he advised, took it easy, and ate what they had a mind to do.
As for Ben himself, he cut one large slice off the round of beef, and then placed upon it two slices of ham, so that the thickness--for he was not a delicate carver--was about three inches; and so he set to work, every now and then taking up one of the half-gallon ale flagons, and pledging the company all round.
Probably, rough and homely as was Ben's lunch, not one of them present had ever enjoyed such a meal more than they this did; and if we might judge by the loud laughter that echoed about the old arched roof, a merrier hour was never spent than in the Tower with Big Ben.
But it was a sadness to Ben to find that such little progress was made in the consumption of his eatables and drinkables; and he uttered many groans as he watched Johanna and Arabella.
