The young gentlemen, having no intention to exert themselves unnecessarily, lounged about with cigars in their mouths, and voted the whole thing “a bore;” while several of the elders of both sexes, suppressing for the time the exhibition of their specialities of selfishness, indulged in a prolonged chorus of grumbling and mutual condolence. But, in one way or other, all had been fed and housed before midnight, and sleep buried for a while in forgetfulness the troubles of the bewildered settlers on Comoro.
We pass over the first month, and how does the commissioner, on his arrival at the island, find the exiles bearing their lot? Proclamation was at once made that those who had anything to complain of should meet him in a spacious marquee which he had caused to be set up on a large open piece of ground near the shore, immediately on his arrival. He was rather dismayed, however, when he found the place of hearing crowded without a moment’s delay by nine-tenths of the islanders, while many were clamouring outside because unable to obtain admission. After a few moments’ consideration, he ordered his officers to clear the marquee, and then to admit a hundred of the more elderly of each sex. This was done with some considerable difficulty, and the commissioner then addressed himself to a crabbed-looking old gentleman, who had elbowed his way to the front with a vigour hardly to have been looked for in one of his years and apparent infirmities.
“May I request, sir, to be informed what it is you have to complain of?” asked the commissioner.
“I complain of everything and everybody,” was the reply.
“Is that all you have to complain of?” the commissioner then asked. Before the old gentleman could frame an answer to this second question, the judge, having paused to give a few moments for reply, exclaimed, “Officer, dismiss this complainant;” and the old man was forthwith removed from the tent in a state of boiling indignation.
“And now, madam,” continued the commissioner, addressing a middle-aged lady of dignified mien and commanding stature, “may I ask what is your complaint?”
“I complain, sir,” replied the lady sternly, “of general neglect and ill-treatment.”
“Excuse me, madam,” was the judge’s reply, “but I can see no evidence of this in your personal appearance. So far from it, that, having met you not unfrequently in the streets of our city, I am constrained to congratulate you on the manifest improvement in health which you have gained from a month’s residence in this delightful climate.—Officer, conduct this lady with all due ceremony to the outside of our court.”
“And you, sir,” speaking to a gentleman of very severe countenance, who had been used at home to “show his slaves how choleric he was, and make his bondmen tremble,”—“let me hear what charge you have to allege.”
“Charge, Mr Commissioner! Charge enough, I’m sure! Why, I can’t get any one to mind a word that I say.”