Page:The London Magazine, volume 8 (July–December 1823).djvu/542

 plain: and the courage of the company, which had so recently sunk below the freezing point, suddenly rose at once above boiling heat. Mr. Goodchild levelled a blow at the Death’s-head which had caused him so much pain and agitation; and Mr. Tempest, seeing that no better course remained, made off for the front door: and thus the uninvited masque, who had so lately chased and ejected the whole body of the invited ones, was in turn chased and ejected by them.

The festivities had been too violently interrupted to be now resumed: the guests took leave; and the weeping Ida was banished to a close confinement in her own room.

Here ends our episode. It was on the very morning after this fracas that Mr. Whelp waited upon Mr. Goodchild to report to him the universal opinion of the world upon the bust of the late stamp-distributor his brother; and upon that opinion to ground an appeal to his justice.

A worse season for his visit he could not possibly have chosen. Mr. Goodchild stormed and said—“The case had been tried and disposed of; and he must insist on being troubled with no further explanations.” And so far did his anger make him forget the common courtesies of life, that he never asked the proprietor of the china-works to sit down. Mr. Whelp, on his part no less astonished than irritated at such treatment, inquired of the footman what was the matter with his master; and the footman, who was going away and was reckless of consequences, repeated the whole history of the preceding night with fits of laughter; and added that the sport was not yet over; for that this morning a brisk correspondence had commenced between his master and Mr. Tempest—which, by the effect produced on the manners of both, seemed by no means of the gentlest nature.

This account was particularly agreeable to Mr. Whelp. Concluding that under the present circumstances Mr. Tempest would naturally be an excellent counsellor against Mr. Goodchild, he hastened over to his apartments; and said that, his last effort to bring the merchant over the way to any reasonable temper of mind having utterly failed, he had now another scheme. But first of all he wished to have the professional opinion of Mr. Tempest—whether he should lay himself open to an action if he took the following course to reimburse himself the expenses of the three dozen of busts. He had been told by some Englishman, whose name he could not at this moment call to mind, that the bust of the stamp-master was a most striking likeness of Christophe the black king of Hayti: now this being the case, what he proposed to do was to wash over the late stamp-distributor with a black varnish, and to export one dozen and a half of the distributor on speculation to St. Domingo, keeping the rest for home consumption.

When Mr. Tempest heard this plan stated—in spite of his own disturbance of mind at the adventures of the last night, he could not forbear laughing heartily at the conceit: for he well knew what was the real scheme which lurked under this pretended exportation to St. Domingo. Some little time back Mr. Goodchild had addressed to the German people, through the General Advertiser, this question:—“How or whence it came about that in so many newspapers of late days mention had been made of a kingdom of Hayti, when it was notorious to every body that the island in question was properly called St. Domingo?” He therefore exhorted all editors of political journals to return to more correct principles. On the same occasion he had allowed himself many very disrespectful expressions against “a certain black fellow who pretended to be king of Hayti;” so that it might readily be judged that it would not be a matter of indifference to him if his late brother the stamp-master were sold under the name of king of Hayti.