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[-1-]
CHAPTER CXXXVII.
RATS' CASTLE.
Richard
Markham, though perfectly unpretending in manner and somewhat reserved or even
sedate in disposition, possessed the most undaunted courage. Thus was it that,
almost immediately recovering himself from the sudden check which he had
experienced at the hands of the Resurrection Man, he hurried in pursuit of the
miscreant, followed by the policeman and the people whom the alarm which he had
given had called to his aid.
The people were, however, soon tired of running
gratuitously for an object which they could scarcely comprehend; but the
police-officer kept close to Markham; and they were speedily reinforced by two
other constables, who, seeing that something was the matter, and with
characteristic officiousness, immediately joined them.
From an inquiry put to the waterman of the adjacent
cab-stand, who had seen a person running furiously along a moment or two before,
Markham felt convinced that the object of his pursuit had plunged into the maze
of Saint Giles's; and, though well aware of the desperate character of that
individual, and conscious that should he encounter him alone in some dark alley
or gloomy court, a fearful struggle must ensue between them, he did not
hesitate, unarmed as he was, to dash into that thicket of dangerous habitations.
Soon outstripping the officers, who vainly begged [-2-]
him to keep with them, as they were unacquainted with the person of whom
he was in pursuit, — forgetting every measure of precaution in the ardour of the
chase, Richard rushed headlong through the dark and unpaved streets, following
the echo of every retreating footstep which he heard, and stopping only to
scrutinise the countenances of those who, in the obscurity of the hour and
place, seemed at first might to resemble the exterior of the Resurrection Man.
Vain was his search. At length, exhausted, he mate down
on the steps of a door-way to recover his breath, after having expended an hour
In his fruitless search up one street, down another, and in every nook and
corner of that district which we have before described as the Holy Land.
Accident shortly led the officers, who had originally
entered upon the chase with him, to the spot where he was seated.
"Here is the gentleman himself," said one,
turning the glare of his bull's-eye full upon our hero.
"No luck, I suppose, sir?" observed another.
"You had much better have remained with us and given us some idea of the
person that you want."
'Fool that I was!" exclaimed Markham, now
perceiving his imprudence in that respect: "I have left you to pursue a
shadow, instead of depicting to you the substance. But surely the name of
Anthony Tidkins — "
"The Resurrection Man, as they call him,"
hastily remarked one of the constables.
"The same," answered Markham.
"Why — he blew himself up, along with some ethers and
a number of our men, last year, down in Bethnal Green," said the constable
who had last spoken.
"No — he lives, he lives," exclaimed Richard,
impatiently. "My God! I know him but too well."
"And it was after him that you gave the alarm just
now in Tottenham Court Road!"
"It was. I knew him at once — I could not be
mistaken: his voice, laden with a curse, still rings in my ears."
"Well, since the gentleman's so positive, I 'spose
it must be so," said the constable: "we musn't sleep upon it, mates.
Ten to one that Tidkins has taken to burrow in one of the low cribs about here;
and he means to lie quiet for two or three days till the alarm's blown over. I
know the dodges of these fellers. You two go the round of Plumptre Street; and
me and this gentleman will just take a permiscuous look into the kens about
here."
The two constables to whom these words were addressed,
immediately departed upon the mission proposed to them, and Richard signified
his readiness to accompany the officer who had thus settled the plan of
proceedings.
'We'll go first to Rats' Castle, sir, if you
please," said the policeman: "that is the most likely place for a
run-away to take refuge in at random."
"What is Rats' Castle?" asked Markham, as he
walked by the officer's side down a wretched alley, almost as dark as pitch, and
over the broken pavement of which he stumbled at every step.
"The night-house where all kind of low people meet
to sup and lodge," was the reply. "But here we are — and you'll see al
about it in an instant."
They had stopped at the door of a house with an area
protected by thick wooden palings. All the upper part of the dwelling appeared
to be involved in total darkness: but lights streamed through the chinks of the
rude shutters of the area-windows and from the same direction emanated
boisterous merriment, coarse laughter, and wild hurrahs.
"You knock at the door, sir, if you please,"
said the policeman, "while I stand aside. I'll slip in after you; for if
they twig my coat, and Tidkins really happens to be there, they'd give him the
office to bolt before we could get in."
"Well thought of," returned Markham. "But
upon what plea am I to claim admittance?"
"As a stranger, impelled by curiosity. You carry
the silver key in your pocket."
The policeman withdrew a few paces; and our hero knocked
boldly at the door.
A gruff voice challenged the visitor from the area.
"Who's here!"
"No one that will do you any harm," replied
Richard. "I am anxious to witness the interior of this establishment; and
here is half-a-crown for you if you can gratify my curiosity."
"That's English, anyhow," said the voice,
softening in its tone. "Stop a minit."
Markham heard a door close in the area below; and in a
few moments the bolts were drawn beck Inside the one at which he was standing.
"Now then, my ben-cull — in with you," said a
man, as he opened the front door, and held a candle high up above his head at
the same time.
Markham stepped into a narrow passage, and placed his
foot against the door in such a way as to keep it open. But the precaution was
unnecessary for the policeman had glided in almost simultaneously with himself.
"Now, no noise, old feller," said the
constable, in a hasty whisper to the man who had opened the door: "our
business is n't with any of your set."
"Wery good," returned the porter of Rats'
Castle: "you know best — it isn't for me to say nothink."
"Go first, sir," whispered the officer to
Markham. "You seem to know him better than me, for I never saw him
but once — and then only for a minute or two."
"Which way!" demanded Richard.
"Straight on — and then down stairs. You keep behind
us. old feller," added the policeman, turning to the porter.
Markham descended a flight of narrow and precipitate
steps, and at the bottom found himself in a large room formed of two kitchens
thrown into one.
Two long tables running parallel to each other the
entire length of the place, were laid out for supper, — the preparations
consisting of a number of greasy napkins spread upon either board, and decorated
with knives and forks all chained to the tables. Iron plates to eat off,
galley-pots and chipped tea-cups filled with salt, three or four pepper-boxes,
and two small stone jars containing mustard, completed the preparations for the
evening meal.
The room was lighted by means of a number of candles
disposed in tin shades around the walls; and as no one gave himself the trouble
to snuff them, the wicks were long, and infested with what housewives denominate
"thieves," while the tallow streamed down in large flakes, dripping on
the floor, the seats, or the backs of the guests.
Crowded together at the two tables, and anxiously [-3-]
watching the proceedings of an old blear-eyed woman, who was occupied at
an immense fire at the farther end of the room, were about thirty or forty
persons, male and female. And never did Markham's eyes glance upon a more
extraordinary — a more loathsome — a more revolting spectacle than that assemblage
of rags, filth, disease, deformity, and ugliness.
Mendicants, vagabonds, impostors, and rogues of all
kinds were gathered in that room, the fetid heat of which was stifling. The
horrible language of which they made use, — their frightful curses, — their obscene
jests, — their blasphemous jokes, were calculated to shock the mind of the least
fastidious: — It was indeed a scene from which Markham would have fled as from a
nest of vipers, had not a stern duty to society and to himself urged him to
penetrate farther into that den.
The appearance of himself and the policeman did not
produce any remarkable degree of sensation amongst the persons assembled: they
were accustomed to the occasional visits of well-dressed strangers, who repaired
thither to gratify curiosity; and the presence of the officers of justice was a
matter of frequent occurrence when any great robbery had been perpetrated in the
metropolis, and while the culprits remained undiscovered.
"He is not here," whispered Markham to his
companion, after casting a hasty but penetrating glance around.
"He may come: this is the most likely place in
Saint Giles's for him to visit," returned the policeman. "We will wait
half-an-hour."
Richard would gladly have retired; but he was ashamed to
exhibits disgust which the officer might mistake for fear. He accordingly seated
himself at small side-table, in compliance with a sign from his companion.
A waiter, wearing an apron which, by its colour, seemed
also to do the duty of dish-cloth, now accosted them, and said, "Please to
order anythink, gen'lemen?"
"Two glasses of brandy-and-water," replied
the. Constable.
This command was speedily complied with; and, few
minutes afterwards, supper was served up on the two long tables before
described. The old woman who presided over the culinary department of the
establishment had amply catered for those present. Legs of mutton, both roasted
and boiled, — rounds of beef, flanked with carrots, — huge pies, — boiled legs of
pork, — immense quantities of sausages, — and sheep's heads, constituted the staple
of the banquet. These viands, accompanied by piles of smoking potatoes "in
their jackets" and heaps of cabbages, were all served up on iron dishes,
from which no thrifty hand ever removed the rust.
Then commenced the clattering of the knives and forks,
the din of which upon the iron platters was strangely blended with the rattling
of the chains that held them to the tables. The boisterous merriment and coarse
conversation were for a time absorbed in the interest occasioned by the presence
of the repast.
"What a strange assembly." whispered Markham
to the constable.
"Strange to you, sir — no doubt," was the
answer, also delivered in a tone audible only to him to whom the words were
addressed. "That sturdy feller sitting at the head of the nearest table,
with the pat cudgel between his legs, is one of the class that don't take the
trouble to clothe themselves in rags, but trust to their insolence to extort
alms from females walking alone in retired parts. That feller next to him, all
in tatters, but who laughs louder than any one else, is one of them whining,
shivering, snivelling wretches that crouch up in doorways on rainy days, and on
fine ones sit down on the pavement with 'Starving, but dare not beg,'
chalked on the stone before them. The man over there in sailor's clothes tumbled
down an area when he was drunk, and broke his leg: he was obliged to have it cut
off; and so he now passes himself of as one of Nelson's own tars, though he
never saw the sea in his life. That chap almost naked who's just come in, is
going to put on his coat and shoes before he sits down to supper; he always goes
out begging in that state on rainy days, and is a gentleman on fine ones."
"I do not understand you," said Markham,
astonished at this last observation.
"Why, sir," replied the policeman,
"there's certain beggars that always turn out half-naked, on rainy days, or
when the snow's on the ground; and people pity them so much on those occasions
that the rogues get enough to keep them all through the fine weather. If they
have wives and children to go out with them, so much the better: but that feller
there is n't married; and so he goes with a woman who frequents this place, and
they hire three or four children from the poor people in this neighbourhood, at
the rate of two-pence a day each child, and its grub. To see them go shivering
and whining through the streets, with no shoes or stockings, you'd think they
were the most miserable devils on the face of the earth; and then, to make the
scene complete, the man and woman always pinch the little children that they
carry in their arms, to make them cry, whenever they pass a window where several
ladies are looking out."
"Is this possible?" whispered Markham, his
face flushing with indignation.
"Possible, sir! Don't I see it all every day of my
life! Look at them men and women blowing their hides out with all that good
meat; and now look at the pots of porter that's coming in. Every soul there has
sworn a hundred times during the day that he has n't tasted food for forty-eight
hours, and will repeat the same story to-morrow. But they all had good suppers
here last night, and good breakfasts here this morning; and you see how they are
faring this evening."
"But there are real cases deserving of
charity?" said Markham, interrogatively, — for he almost felt disposed to
doubt the fact.
"Certainly there are, sir," was the reply;
"but it's very difficult for such as you to decide between the true and the
false. Look at that man who carves at the second table: he can see well enough
to cut himself the tit-bits; but to-morrow he will be totally blind in one of
the fashionable squares."
"Totally blind!" said Richard, more and more
astonished at what he heard.
"Yes, sir — totally blind; led by a dog, and with a
placard upon his chest. He keeps his eyes fast shut, and colours the lids with
carmine and vermilion. But that is nothing. That feller next to him, who uses
his knife and fork so well, will tomorrow have lost his right arm at the battle
of Salamanca."
"But how can that imposture be effected?" [-4-]
"His right arm is concealed under his clothes,' and
the coat-sleeve hangs down loose," replied the' constable. "That tall
stout man who has just jumped so nimbly over the form in his way back to his
place, has walked on crutches in the streets for the last twenty years; and when
you see him so, you would think he could hardly drag himself along. The feller
over there is a frozen-out gardener in winter, and a poor Spitalfields' weaver
in summer. The one next to him will have a black patch over his left eye
to-morrow; and yet you may see that it is as good as his right. The short man
opposite to him bends his left leg back, and has a wooden one to support the
knee, when he is in the street. That woman there has been dressed in widows'
weeds for the, last fifteen years, and always has a troop of six children with
her; but the children never grow any. bigger, for she hires fresh ones every
year or so."
"This is the most extraordinarily combined mass of
contradictions and deceptions I ever gazed upon,' whispered Markham.
"You may well say that, sir," said the
policeman. "The ragged feller down at the bottom of the second table sits
as upright as you or me: well, in the streets he crawls along the ground with
two icon supporters in his hands. He is the most insolent feller in London. The
man next to him goes about on a sort of van, or chaise, and the world believes
that he has no legs at all; but they are all the time concealed in the body of
the vehicle, and the stumps of the thighs which are seen are false. Those three
hulking chaps over there, sitting with the three women that laugh so much, are
begging-letter impostors. The eldest of the three men has been seventeen years
at the business, and has been in prison twenty-eight times. One day he is a
brick-layer who has fallen from a scaffold, and broken his leg, and has a wife
and eleven young children dependent on him another day he is a licensed
clergyman of the Church of England, but unemployed for two years-wife and six
children totally dependent on him. Then he changes into a stanch Tory, ruined by
his attachment to the cause, and proscribed by all his friends on account of his
principles: in this shape he addresses himself to the old Tory noblemen, and
makes a good harvest. The very next day he becomes a determined and stanch
Reformer, who lost his employment through giving his vote for the Tower Hamlets
to the liberal candidate at the last election, and has since met with an
uninterrupted series of misfortunes — sold up by a Tory landlord, — his wife been
dead only a fortnight, and seven motherless children left dependent on him. This
kind of letter always draws well. Then he becomes a paralytic with an execution
in his house; or a Spitalfields' weaver, with nine children, two of which are
cripples, and one blind; or else a poor Scotch schoolmaster, come to London on
business, and robbed by designing knaves of the means of returning to his own
country. The women are just as bad. They are either wives with husbands in
hospitals and bedridden mothers; or daughters with helpless parents and sick
brothers and sisters dependent on them; — and so on."
"But if you be aware of all these monstrous
impositions, why do you not interfere to protect the public?" inquired
Markham.
"Lord, sir!" said the constable, "if we
took up all persons that we know to be impostors, we should have half London in
custody. We only interfer [sic] when specially
called upon, or when we see cases so very flagrant that we can't help taking
notice of them. Some of these chaps that are eating here so hearty now, will
seem to be dying in the streets to-morrow."
"Merciful heavens, what a city of deceit and
imposture is this!" observed Richard, painfully excited by the strange
details which be had just heard. "Were the interior of this den but once
exposed to general view, charity would be at an end, and the deserving poor
would suffer for the unprincipled impostor."
"True enough, sir. And now look — the cloth is
removed, and every one is ordering in something strong to wash down the supper.
There goes a crown-bowl of punch — that's for the begging-letter impostors: and
there's glasses of punch, and cold -spirits and water, and shrub, and negus.
That's the way they do it, you see, sir."
Markham did indeed see, and wondered more and more at
what he so saw — until his feelings of surprise changed into sentiments of
ineffable abhorrence and disgust; and he longed to leave that odious den.
"The person whom we seek does not appear to
come," he said, after a long interval of silence. "Two hours have
elapsed — and we are only wasting time here."
"He must have taken refuge in some other crib,
sir," returned the constable. "Let us leave this one, and make the
round of the other lodging houses in this street."
Markham was glad to hurry away from Rats' Castle, the
mysteries of which had so painfully shocked his generous feelings.
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