So they rode (to the deep and unspeakable disgust of John Grueby)the whole length of Whitechapel, Leadenhall Street, and Cheapside,and into St Paul"s Churchyard. Arriving close to the cathedral, hehalted; spoke to Gashford; and looking upward at its lofty dome,shook his head, as though he said, "The Church in Danger!" Then tobe sure, the bystanders stretched their throats indeed; and he wenton again with mighty acclamations from the mob, and lower bows thanever.
So along the Strand, up Swallow Street, into the Oxford Road, andthence to his house in Welbeck Street, near Cavendish Square,whither he was attended by a few dozen idlers; of whom he tookleave on the steps with this brief parting, "Gentlemen, No Popery.
Good day. God bless you." This being rather a shorter addressthan they expected, was received with some displeasure, and criesof "A speech! a speech!" which might have been complied with, butthat John Grueby, making a mad charge upon them with all threehorses, on his way to the stables, caused them to disperse into theadjoining fields, where they presently fell to pitch and toss,chuck-farthing, odd or even, dog-fighting, and other Protestantrecreations.
In the afternoon Lord George came forth again, dressed in a blackvelvet coat, and trousers and waistcoat of the Gordon plaid, all ofthe same Quaker cut; and in this costume, which made him look adozen times more strange and singular than before, went down onfoot to Westminster. Gashford, meanwhile, bestirred himself inbusiness matters; with which he was still engaged when, shortlyafter dusk, John Grueby entered and announced a visitor.
"Let him come in," said Gashford.
"Here! come in!" growled John to somebody without; "You"re aProtestant, an"t you?"
"I should think so," replied a deep, gruff voice.
"You"ve the looks of it," said John Grueby. "I"d have known youfor one, anywhere." With which remark he gave the visitoradmission, retired, and shut the door.
The man who now confronted Gashford, was a squat, thicksetpersonage, with a low, retreating forehead, a coarse shock head ofhair, and eyes so small and near together, that his broken nosealone seemed to prevent their meeting and fusing into one of theusual size. A dingy handkerchief twisted like a cord about hisneck, left its great veins exposed to view, and they were swollenand starting, as though with gulping down strong passions, malice,and ill-will. His dress was of threadbare velveteen--a faded,rusty, whitened black, like the ashes of a pipe or a coal fireafter a day"s extinction; discoloured with the soils of many astale debauch, and reeking yet with pot-house odours. In lieu ofbuckles at his knees, he wore unequal loops of packthread; and inhis grimy hands he held a knotted stick, the knob of which wascarved into a rough likeness of his own vile face. Such was thevisitor who doffed his three-cornered hat in Gashford"s presence,and waited, leering, for his notice.
"Ah! Dennis!" cried the secretary. "Sit down."
"I see my lord down yonder--" cried the man, with a jerk of histhumb towards the quarter that he spoke of, "and he says to me,says my lord, "If you"ve nothing to do, Dennis, go up to my houseand talk with Muster Gashford." Of course I"d nothing to do, youknow. These an"t my working hours. Ha ha! I was a-taking the airwhen I see my lord, that"s what I was doing. I takes the air bynight, as the howls does, Muster Gashford."
And sometimes in the day-time, eh?" said the secretary--"when yougo out in state, you know."
"Ha ha!" roared the fellow, smiting his leg; "for a gentleman as"ull say a pleasant thing in a pleasant way, give me MusterGashford agin" all London and Westminster! My lord an"t a bad "unat that, but he"s a fool to you. Ah to be sure,--when I go out instate."
"And have your carriage," said the secretary; "and your chaplain,eh? and all the rest of it?"
"You"ll be the death of me," cried Dennis, with another roar, "youwill. But what"s in the wind now, Muster Gashford," he askedhoarsely, "Eh? Are we to be under orders to pull down one of themPopish chapels--or what?"
"Hush!" said the secretary, suffering the faintest smile to playupon his face. "Hush! God bless me, Dennis! We associate, youknow, for strictly peaceable and lawful purposes."
"I know, bless you," returned the man, thrusting his tongue intohis cheek; "I entered a" purpose, didn"t I!"
"No doubt," said Gashford, smiling as before. And when he said so,Dennis roared again, and smote his leg still harder, and fallinginto fits of laughter, wiped his eyes with the corner of hisneckerchief, and cried, "Muster Gashford agin" all England hollow!"
"Lord George and I were talking of you last night," said Gashford,after a pause. "He says you are a very earnest fellow."
"So I am," returned the hangman.
"And that you truly hate the Papists."
"So I do," and he confirmed it with a good round oath. "Lookyehere, Muster Gashford," said the fellow, laying his hat and stickupon the floor, and slowly beating the palm of one hand with thefingers of the other; "Ob-serve. I"m a constitutional officer thatworks for my living, and does my work creditable. Do I, or do Inot?"
"Unquestionably."
"Very good. Stop a minute. My work, is sound, Protestant,constitutional, English work. Is it, or is it not?"
"No man alive can doubt it."