“Halloo!  Piggott, armed cap au pied, I see,” said Lord Squib.  This joke was a signal for general resuscitation....

Here they lounged in different parties, ’talking on such subjects as idlers ever fall upon; now and then plucking a flower—­now and then listening to the fountain—­now and then lingering over the distant music—­and now and then strolling through a small apartment which opened to their walks, and which bore the title of the Temple of Gnidus.  Here Canova’s Venus breathed an atmosphere of perfume and of light—­that wonderful statue whose full-charged eye is not very classical, to be sure—­but then, how true!

Lord Squib proposed a visit to the theatre, which he had ordered to be lit up.  To the theatre they repaired.  They rambled over every part of the house, amused themselves, to the horror of Mr. Annesley, with a visit to the gallery, and then collected behind the scenes.  They were excessively amused with the properties; and Lord Squib proposed they should dress themselves.  Enough champagne had been quaffed to render any proposition palatable, and in a few minutes they were all in costume.  A crowd of queens and chambermaids, Jews and chimney-sweeps, lawyers and charleys, Spanish dons and Irish officers, rushed upon the stage.  The little Spaniard was Almaviva, and fell into magnificent attitudes, with her sword and plume.  Lord Squib was the old woman of Brentford, and very funny.  Sir Lucius Grafton, Harlequin; and Darrell, Grimaldi.  The prince and the count, without knowing it, figured as watchmen.  Squib whispered Annesley that Sir Lucius O’Trigger might appear in character, but was prudent enough to suppress the joke.

The band was summoned, and they danced quadrilles with infinite spirit, and finished the night, at the suggestion of Lord Squib, by breakfasting on the stage.  By the time this meal was dispatched, the purple light of morn had broken into the building, and the ladies proposed an immediate departure.  Mrs. Montfort and her sister were sent home in one of the duke’s carriages; and the foreign guests were requested by him to be their escort.  The respective parties drove off.  Two cabriolets lingered to the last, and finally carried away the French actress and the Spanish dancer, Lord Darrell, and Peacock Piggott; but whether the two gentlemen went in one and two ladies in the other I cannot aver.  I hope not.

There was at length a dead silence, and the young duke was left to solitude and the signora!

SQUIBS PROM ‘THE YOUNG DUKE’

CHARLES ANNESLEY