Though the exhibition made by the culprit, seated as he was
on a great ragged beast purposely selected for the occasion, was
sufficiently ludicrous and grotesque to excite the merriment of most of
the beholders, who greeted his arrival with shouts of derisive laughter;
still his woe-begone countenance, and miserable plight--for he was
covered with mud from head to foot--moved the compassion of the
good-natured Madame Bonaventure, as she gazed at him from one of the
upper windows of her hostel, and the feeling was increased as the
wretched old man threw a beseeching glance at her. She could stand the
sight no longer, and rushed from the window.
In the same room with her there were four persons, who had been
partaking of a plentiful repast, as was proved by the numerous dishes
and flasks of wine garnishing the table at which they had been seated,
and they, too, as well as the hostess, on hearing the noise outside the
tavern, had rushed to the windows to see what could cause so much
disturbance. As they were all well acquainted with the old usurer and
his mal-practices, the spectacle had a special interest to them as well
as to the hostess, and they were variously affected by it.
The party, we must state, consisted of Master Richard Taverner, as the
quondam apprentice was now styled, and his pretty wife, Gillian, who now
looked prettier than usual in her wedding attire--for the ceremony
uniting them in indissoluble bonds had only just been performed; old
Greenford, the grandsire of the bride; and Master John Wolfe, of the
Bible and Crown in Paul's Churchyard, bookseller, erstwhile Dick's
indulgent master, and now his partner, Master Taverner having very
prudently invested the contents of the silver coffer in the purchase of
a share in his employers business, with the laudable determination of
bestirring himself zealously in it ever after; and, as another
opportunity may not occur for mentioning the circumstance, we will add
that he kept to his resolution, and ultimately rose to high offices in
the city.
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