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Yet, alas! what were four hundred guards and twenty mutes to the army that opposed us? But our consultation was vain; for while we debated how to defend ourselves, the Prince drew his sabre, and, killing three of our number, cut his way through the guards to his friends.
'Such affectionate regret, sir, I never saw. There is no limitation, there is positively NO limitation' opening his eyes wide, and standing on tiptoe 'in point of expense! I have orders, sir, to put on my whole establishment of mutes; and mutes come very dear, Mr Pecksniff; not to mention their drink.
"What am I but the sultan's slave, and to execute his orders? On my head be it!" Mustapha gave the sign, and the mutes seized the unfortunate pacha. "There is but one God, and Mahomet is his Prophet," said the pacha. "Mustapha," continued he, turning round to him with a sardonic smile, "may your shadow never he less but you have swallowed the coffee." The mutes tightened the string.
In and out of the cabin passed bronzed-faced Ethiopian mutes with silver cups of the precious Mareotic white wine of Egypt for the lady, and plates of African pomegranates, Armenian apricots, and strange sweetmeats flavoured with a marvellous powder, an Oriental product worth its weight in gold as a medicine, which later generations were to designate under the name of sugar. Tibiæ.
The Duke is very angry with them, and says he shall take an opportunity of advising Peel in their presence never to rise till Brougham has spoken, let others be abused as they may. If the three mutes will not speak, it is clear they will not remain in very long.
Mr Fyall and I sat down, and then in walked four mutes, stout young fellows, not over well dressed, and with faces burnt to the colour of brick dust. They were the bookkeepers, so called because they never see a book, their province being to attend the negroes in the field, and to superintend the manufacture of sugar and rum in the boiling and distilling houses.
Evidently they were all of them deaf mutes, for they made signs to Nya, who answered them with other signs, the purport of which seemed to sadden and disturb them greatly. "They have seen the fall of my tree in their bowls," explained Nya to Noie, "and ask me if it is a true vision. I tell them that I am come here to die and that is why they are sad.
He got in all the details, and that is a good thing in a local item: you see, he had kept books for the undertaker-department of his church when he was younger, and there, you know, the money's in the details; the more details, the more swag: bearers, mutes, candles, prayers everything counts; and if the bereaved don't buy prayers enough you mark up your candles with a forked pencil, and your bill shows up all right.
There was something filthy and frightful about the figures of the mutes. And when they dragged the pall from the coffin there was something filthy and frightful about the action. "Roddy," she said, "I'm frightened." Roddy said, "So am I. I say, supposing we went back? By ourselves. Across Wanstead Flats." He was excited. "We mustn't. That would frighten Mamma."
We feel a national pride in comparing them with the instruments which the despots of other countries are compelled to employ, with the mutes who throng their antechambers, and the Janizaries who mount guard at their gates. Our Royalist countrymen were not heartless, dangling courtiers, bowing at every step, and simpering at every word.
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