“Because my business is peremptory, sir,” said I, boldly, and proceeded at once to explain who I was and what I had come for. “To-morrow will be the tenth, sir,” said I, “and I ought to be at Rocco d'Anco by the morning of the twelfth, at farthest.”
He was brushing his hair all the time I was speaking, and I don't think that he heard above half of what I said.
“And do you mean to tell me they are such infernal fools at F.O. that they 're going to pay one thousand pounds sterling to liberate this scamp St. John?”
“I think, sir, you will find that I have been sent out with this object”
“Why, it's downright insanity! It is a thousand pities they had n't caught the fellow years ago. Are you aware that there's scarcely a crime in the statute-book he has not committed? I'd not say murder wasn't amongst them. Why, sir, he cheated me,—me,—the man who now speaks to you,—at billiards. He greased my cue, sir. It was proved,—proved beyond the shadow of a doubt. The fellow called it a practical joke, but he forgot I had five ducats on the game; and he had the barefaced insolence to amuse Naples by a representation of me as I sided my ball, and knocked the marker down afterwards, thinking it was his fault. He was attached, this St. John was, to my mission here at the time; but I wrote home to demand—not to ask, but demand—his recall. His father's vote was, however, of consequence to the Government, and they refused me. Yes, sir, they refused me; they told me to give him a leave of absence if I did not like to see him at the Legation; and I gave it, sir. And, thank Heaven, the fellow went into Calabria, and fell into the hands of the brigands,—too good company for him, I 'm certain. I 'll be shot if he could n't corrupt them; and now you 're come out here to pay a ransom for a fellow that any other country but England would send to the galleys.”
“Has he done nothing worse, sir,” asked I, timidly, “than this stupid practical joke?”
“What, sir, have you the face to put this question to me,—to H.M.'s Minister at this court,—the subject of this knavish buffoonery? Am I a fit subject for a fraud,—a—a freedom, sir? Is it to a house which displays the royal arms over the entrance-door men come to play blackleg or clown? Where have you lived, with whom have you lived, what pursuit in life have you followed, that you should be sunk in such utter ignorance of all the habits of life and civilization?”
I replied that I was a gentleman, I trusted as well educated, and I knew as well-born, as himself.
He sprang to the bell as I said this, and rang on till the room was crowded with servants, who came rushing in under the belief that it was a fire-alarm.
“Take him away,—put him out—Giacomo,—Hippo-lyte,—Francis!” screamed he. “See that he's out of the house this instant. Send Mr. Carlyon here. Let the police be called, and order gendarmes if he resists.”