Show from house Houst hrushow Hou shoW hold bold words an experience of austria on the tenth day of december eighteen hundred and arid fifty four I 1 entered the austrian capital and took up my abode at a certain hotel I 1 bad no particular business in vienna my aly object 11 et was to amuse myself and at my leisure see t the e many works of art of which the imperial city canti can boast my name reader is jenkins alf aifred alfred red jenkins my passport accordia according to the regulation was deposited with wilh the police and I 1 was din lieu thereof with a 4 pass or permission sion slon to remain one month this was renewable provided the authorities had no objection oil on the third day after my illy arrival I 1 called to the kellner to bring me the ibe lloyd lloyo the times newspaper of vienna the kellner approached me rubbed his hands ilande shook his head and smiled tiie tile the lloyd I 1 repeated 11 it how is is suspended sir said the ho kellner wot allowed to come out sir wily why 11 for abusing the emperor of russia for how bow long is it suspended cannot say day sir bir it may he for one month or for ever the minister of police will lil ill settle that herel was guilty of a slight indiscretion I 1 remarked to an english officer with whom I 1 had established an ni acquaintance and who was seated sealed at the same table with me roe only fancy if the times the daily news or the tho post was suddenly cut off flom ue US imagine sir richard Mayn alayne ending i down to PIn painting Pi inting tin house square and putting a padlock on the premises promise W 0 be o careful said my companion in in a whisper do you see that little man mail at yonder table yes who is heli hell he he the is a spy no one knows whether be is a german an italian an englishman a frenchman or a spaniard for he speaks all languages with equal facility and ele elf elegance gance not that he fie ever opens his mouth in this room except to at he gives himself up to listening arid and by long iong practice his ears are peculiarly acute I 1 took the hint and discoursed on the weather and other equally harmless topics at five I 1 seated myself at one of the small tables and ordered dinner my companion com had lad ift left vienna for trieste and I 1 was now alone but not far from me I 1 espied the tile little man to whom my roy attention had been called in the morning now if there be one thing in tile the world that I 1 detest more than another it is having no one to talk to after dinner to sip wine in alence sl ence is to me isa insupportable so I 1 called out in a very great voice kellner the kellner an intelligent well mannered indeed a gentlemanlike person came and I 1 made several enquiries touching the public amusements for the evening and concluded by saying bring me the london times please the times has not come today to day days bir sir it has been stopped 2 the ithe times stopped how at cat the frontier sir air wily wily 71 it has something got bad in it I 1 suppose sir 10 OS well bring me the daily news 2 that paper is forbidden in vienna why it abuses the austrian government indeed then serve it right to exclude it from the austrian dominions here I 1 glanced at the tile little mads mans moan roan who was now smoking 1 a c cigar gar the kellner then volunteered the following piece place alece of information when an english paper says anything bad tileta comes a telegraphic message from london and when that paper comes to the frontier it is seized and burnt does this often happen sometimes sir was the reply that evening I 1 received a letier letter from a friend in Brus brussels sels sols who required me to answer several questions by electric telegraph I 1 proceeded to the office and arid vas was furnished with a paper which I 1 filled up thug thus number one frazers fragers Fra mag meg azine october one thousand eight hundred and forty eight number three let it stand as written onit writ ten fen number four send no money till you hear from me having paid two pounds ten shillings for these mes messages and having been furnished with a re salles returned relur ned to my hotel and subsequently went to the opera at about nine anthe on the following morning whilst dressing I 1 heard a knock at my door and called outcome in A person in a semi military uniform entered my apartment and looking at a papel pallet in ill his hand pronounced something like my name I 1 bowed I 1 was immediately pj presented resented ted with an invitation to attend at a certain office an office connected with the police department at the hour of two ouock what on earth have I 1 done I 1 began to ask myself and forthwith my illy commissioner who pulled his moustache and quietly suge suggested ested perhaps itis nothing adding by way of consoling me english gentlemen who come to stay slay here are mostly sent for arm ani asked their business at tile the hour of two precisely I 1 I 1 was at the place appointed conducted thither by the commissioner who having other business to attend to left me ili in a long and gloomy passage which I 1 paced for about three quarters of all an hour the weather was bitterly cold and I 1 was half frozen when the individual who had served me with the summons came out at a door arid and beckoned me to approach him film I 1 obeyed the mover ent nent of his finger and was shown into a room where sat all an effi official cial at a desk writing I 1 made a bow on entering the room but of this no sort sorl of or notice was taken As I 1 was not asked to take a chair and as I 1 could never stand still for any lene leni length g th of time after a few minutes I 1 beean began to walk up and down the room slowly and almost noiselessly this appeared to annoy the official who still kept on writing lie he frowned awfully and once or twice uttered something like Donner wetter welter I 1 know exactly how long I 1 was kept waiting in the officials room because I 1 consulted my watch several time times I 1 was there eiel eighteen iteen minutes before my attention was called to the business oil on hand your name is jencius Jen kius at length greeted my ears i yes 1 I 1 replied well dwell what do you come here for to vienna I 1 mean to see the city and aud what it contains bah bale this rather startled me A long pause ens ensued tied this is your passport resumed the official holding up the hie document before me yes where is your servant mentioned in this passport lie he is not at the tile hotel no lie he is not I 1 was informed at the he frontier at badenbach Baden bagh that as hla hia name was not written in the passport lie he could not enter austria I 1 had therefore there thene foie fole lo 10 send him back to his own country belgium at great inconvenience and some pecuniary loss why do you yon correspond in cipher ll 11 1 I do not that I 1 am aware of what then you tell me what is false lugen ingen ln gen I 1 felt indignant on hearing this but I 1 contrived to my wrath aid aad remarked calmly what I 1 have asserted is the truth I 1 do not correspond in cipher 1 but I 1 have the proof then produce it I 1 my alv telegraphic dispatch of the previous evening was exhibited there exclaimed the official triumphantly there yes forty eight forty eight I 1 bee so will oll you oil see what blu business siness has an englishman with fortye forty E gbill I 1 be began bean an to inform orm the official that thai th althey they were replies to certain questions forwarded to me by a literary f friend in brussels 1 told him that the first question concerned the date in which a certain article had appeared ili in an english periodical all an article to which my friend desired to make immediate reference that the second question referred to the year in which a new edition of a certain work had been published that the third question was about a sentence that my friend wished to alter in a work of mine the proof sheets of which he was then correcting and the fourth question was mas simply this should he my friend remit me from brussels or from london to which last mentioned place he be was about to proceed a surn sum of money I 1 had left in his lands hands I 1 felt that I 1 might mont mony have ave spared myself the tro trouble troubie tible of making this explanation for the official did not listen to one word of it he had made up his mind that I 1 had come to Vien vlen vienna naas as the agent of all the exiles in england and that I 1 was therefore a dangerous character ill in the austrian capital you ayou are then a literary man mail yes 1 I thought so well I 1 must see your papers 41 1 I trust I 1 may be spared the indignity of having my papers searched indignity what indignity many correspondents Q pon dents ol 01 english journals have had bad their papers searched in vienna where do you prefer the search to take place at the hot elor here in my own apartments 2 I 1 replied very well awill I 1 will send a person with you you will meet there another person who will examine your papers and make the report to tome me I 1 was then given to understand that I 1 was not in custody though an agent of the po police dlce dice would wait walt upon me pending further ic iu quirles quines on arriving at the door of my apartment apartment I 1 fourd it op opeland enand two soldiers sold teis sealed seated on oil my sofa they were in possession of my I 1 produced my mir keys and arid handed them to nie hie officer who acc abc accompanied me he lie first opened my desk th the e first letter that he ile examined was WAB from a late indian brigadier general the last epistle lie he ever penned it was dated lamug ger and was posted just before the fatal charge in which he fell over tile the superscription of this letter were several words in in per lah lan character signifying that the postage had not been paid in camp and was payable on delivery there was also on the superscription a few words in ben fen gallee written by the baboo in in the post office I 1 these hese words signified my name and address and were intended asa ase guide to the native postman who could tot not lot read english this let tei was put aside the next document into which the officer peered was a letter from my mother and related entirely to 0 o family affairs I 1 now became acquainted quain guain ted fled with the he fact that hat the officer was able to read our language for after ile he had find got throy the filst page he remarked this tins Is s not nothing hinr and handed me the letter A grand lodge manuscript cert ficare now caught his eye and arid he be opened it out he was not a freemason and had never seen a piece of parchment of the like character he asked me what it was I 1 oid told old him nevertheless he put it aside with the brigadiers letter the fourth document that came to his hand was a letter from a german gentleman holding an office in the prussian embassy in london in that hat letter he fie had bad facetiously facetious alluded to my illy intended visit to vienna and recommended me to take care that hat they did not lock beup me up sosoon no sooner did isee I 1 see the he officer talethe take the epistle in his hand than I 1 felt it was all ali over with me and I 1 dare say that I 1 turned pale albeit I 1 laughed heartily for the whole affair assal struck me as somewhat comical my laughter wa soon changed to gravity I 1 beheld the officer put back the papers into my desk lock it and hand it to one of the tile soldiers and request me to come along it was now nearly five and i suggested that I 1 would like litie to dine this favor however was not accorded my aly levity had bad disgusted dig the authority charged w with I 1 th the inspection of my I 1 papers he was now convinced that I 1 was not I 1 only all an intriguer but a reckless intriguer I 1 had not called on tile the en endlish english alish ambassador because his lordship was ill when I 1 arrived at vienna and ard his son soil was absent ill ili in england to no other members of the corps diplo katique was I 1 personally known I 1 made up my mind not 0 to o trouble any of these gentlemen and resolved to undergo imprisonment patiently until the return which was vas daily expected of the hie ambassadors son soil or his lordships lord ships restoration to health I 1 was quite pr prepared pared to luf Suf suffer e seran feran an infinity of hardships such as herding with felons sleeping oil on bare stones songs feeding on black bread and water and having my rest disturbed by the shrieks of prisoners boners undergoing tile the punishment of laiben perhaps a description of this punishment may interest as well as disgust the he general reader an avenue of soldie isis a I 1 fo loomed med each soldier holds in in his bis hand a sort of knout peculiar to austria I 1 believe the knout is formed of three leather straps attached atta clied to a wooden handle at the end of each strap is a bullet pierced with two spikes crossways cro sawas the prisoner passes through the avenues and each soldier gives agn es him a blow the length of the avenue and the he number of times the prisoner has 0 to o pass through it is determined ter mined by ay the character char chir acter of the tile offense offence which has been committed sometimes death speedily follows he file infliction of the he laffen some few yeal deais a ago several austrian soldiers ill in tile the garrison it at ma Ala yence sence ence once gave up the ghost durin during g this diabolical operation in justice to the austrian authorities I 1 am bound to admit that I 1 had in prison an apartment to myself all an apartment in in winch b there was a bed a hard bed to be sure but a comparatively clean bed I 1 was also permitted to have at my own cost whatever food I 1 thought proper to order and a bottle of hockheimer from the hotel nor was I 1 subject to the slightest incon respect re hect to my toilet I 1 had bad left my card with wili the commissioner of 0 tile the hotel and had requested him to present it to the son soil of the English ambassador on his return from england and inform him of the place where I 1 should always be foundas foun found dat lat home whenever he lie might call tipon upon me meanwhile I 1 re conci led myself to torm torn my temporary lose of liberty thanking my illy that I 1 lad had iad withstood the importunity port unity of my sister who wished to accompany me to vinna vienna to tell the real truth I 1 regarded my wrongs liongs as a mere adventure of which the in af after ter life would be te at all events amusing oil on the third morning of my ray incarceration I 1 asked my attendant ili in a lighthearted light hearted tone how long he was likely to have the care care eare of me this man who 1 I have the vanity to believe had bad grown to like me ha jig replied confidentially that it would be difficult to say but that he knew my passport had been forwarded to the austrian minister at brussels it was at brussels that I 1 had obtained my passport with a request that inquiry should be made respecting me rne and ard the peron person to whom my telegraphic message was addressed he f further urther informed me that several of my letters and papers had been sent to brussels r forthe for the purpose of aiding the austrian officials ili in finding out who I 1 might be and what my 0 object in coming to vienna it was wag eleven eleen I 1 had finished my breakfast had bad lighted a cigar and thrown myself upon my bed to smoke an aej 1 think when suddenly the door of my roy room was opened and in walked the official whom I 1 had bad seen at tile the bureau and who had hai behaved so rudely to me As soon as I 1 recognised recognized him and observed his countenance te nance iwas I 1 was satisfied he had discovered his mistake rising from my bed I 1 made him a very low bow and le ze quested requested him film in be politest fannir manner imaginable to tobe lobe be seated byl by Byi byice ihl ehg he way there was only ore char chair in the room he was a good |