The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-08-14 00:00:00

,EIVIENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STAN

'" Gammon !" returned Auguste. " Dat's all
my eye ! I'm vide avake, I am. Open de
door !'
"Where was you goin' to ?" asked the con-
ductor.
"But Auguste was far too knowing to tell his
secret to the first question. He knew fast
enough where he was going.
" I shall tell you, my covie, oh, yes—over de
left ! Come, look alive. I punch your head !"
The conductor looked hard at Auguste ; sud-
denly a thought seemed to strike him. " Punch
my head, will you! For a forriner, you've got
plenty of London cheek. I'll just obleeg you."
Whereupon he took a key out of the breast
pocket of his coat, and opened the door.
" Jump in, then ; since you're resolved to ride
along of me, why you shall, that's all."
In the twinkling of an eye Augugte leapt upon
the step and entered the omnibus.
" Stop a bit," said the conductor ; "we take
such care of folks here that we gives everybody a
seat to his-self." And, employing another key,
he opened a sort of closet, and disclosed a
separate compartment.
" All right, my covie," remarked Auguste.
" Vot's de damage ?"
" 'Tain't no odds at present," was the reply,
" Only you sit still." As he spoke he carefully
closed the door, which shut with a spring lock,
fastened the outer one with the same precaution,
and resumed his seat, though not with his accus-
tomed gravity.
In London anything attracts a crowd, and
during the brief colloquy which I have described,
twenty people had gathered on the pavement.
" Was that Bobby arter now ?" exclaimed a
gentleman who, though his dress was not in the
first style of fashion, seemed to have some
knowledge of London life. " Why this here's
not reg'lar."
" I'll tell you what it is," remarked another of
the same school ; " the crusher has nabbed one
of them reffigees : he's most probberly been a
shootin' at the Emp'rer Nepoleum "

" Oh, that's it, is it f returned the first.
" Sarve him right then !"
The crowd echoed this sentiment in a truly
fraternal spirit, and in the midst of a general
" hooray" the PRISON VAN moved off to the
police-office, whither it was bound when first the
attention of Auguste had been arrested by it.
However comfortably situated the conductor of
this carriage might be, it was not so with the
company it conveyed.
"Ah, diable !" exclaimed Auguste, striking
his shins against the sharp edge of the wooden
seat when the door was shut behind him. "Je
me suis casse de jambe ! Sacredi ! II fait noir
comme dans un four ! Ou done est le bane?
Tiens ! mais c'est dur ! Oh, comme ga sent
mauvais! Je vais sortir a l'instant ! Conduc-
teur ! Conducteur !"

He groped about to find the handle of the
door, but there was none, and, while vainly feel-
ing for it, the van went over an uneven bit of road,
jerked his head. against the panel, made him

bite his tongue half through, and set his nose
bleeding. He shouted louder than ever, and
kicked against the door with all his might, but
no one came to his assistance. He then remained

still for a few moments and listened. During
the interval he heard a voice through the parti-

ion on his right hand counsellinghim, in not
,he mildest terms, "to hold his jaw till he had

somethin' to squeak for." This redoubled his
rage, and he uttered many French maledictions,
all of which escaped through the little air-hole in
the roof, and, mingling with the breeze, did no

one—but himself--:ani particular harm.

While he was in fh.6 midst of these f‘ tan-

IARD.

G 7

trums " the van arrived at its destination, and
the police-conductor proceeded to liberate the
several prisoners for examination. He reserved
Auguste for the last, meaning, of course, to set
him free altogether, now that he had had his
joke, but destiny decreed it otherwise. The
irritation of the young Frenchman was so great
at the trick which he now- perceived had
been played him, that no sooner was the door of
his cell opened than, doubling his fists, he vindi-
cated his credit as a pupil' of Professor Slagg, by
planting a " One—Two " in the countenance
of the stooping conductor, which rolled that
functionary head over heels into the street.
Great was the commotion of the police outside
who witnessed what they all took to be " a most
unprowoked assault," and before Auguste bad
time to bolt, which was the next. move he medi-
tated, he was safe in the grasp of two of the stur-
diest of the ministers of the law, who in a manner
the very reverse of polite, hauled him across the
pavement into the immediate presence of Mr.
Dove, the presiding magistrate.
An outrage on " The Force," within the Very
precincts of justice, was a crime of so deep a dye,
that it took precedence of all the night charges,
and in a condition which woefully contrasted with
his spruce appearance only'half an hour before—
his coat dirtied and torn, his pink-and-green
cravat twisted like a rope, and his shirt-front
stained with the blood which still streamed from
his nose—Auguste Boulanger was placed at the
bar. A furious harangue, half French, half
English, with which he immediately broke out,
being with some difficulty silenced, he was charged
with assaulting Policeman Henry Tipper, J. 120,
in the execution of his duty.
Now, as the latter part of the accusation was
not strictly correct, Policeman Henry Tipper
would rather have compounded for his black eye
by saying nothing about the real cause for it, but
the members of " The Force" who witnessed
the pugnacity of Auguste were too indignant to
hear of "such lukewarm-heartedness," so nothing
was left for Mr. Tipper but to tell the best story
he could. He began in medias res :
" Which the prisoner, your worship, when I
went for to take him out of the lock-up in the
wan, flied at me like a tiger-cat without no man-
ner of warning, and knocked me right backerds
into the street.

" Had he committed any previous violence ?"
asked Mr. Dove.

" Only by langwidge, your worship, which his
oaths was dreddfle to hear, and kickin' agin the
cell door."

" What for not ?" cried Auguste ; " yas, I try
to kick him down. Who put me in the walking
prison ? He shall catch it.

"Be silent, prisoner," said the clerk of the

court.

,‘ Oh, that is likely, old buffer, after so great
an outrage."

" Really," said the magistrate, " this prisoner's
conduct is very extraordinary. What is the
charge against him in the sheet ? Dunks,'
_ _ _

vey,' o(Brien," Stutters,' Mac Twig,'—these
are all our own people. What is your name, sir."
".I call myself Auguste Boulanger. lam no
muff. I know to use my mauleys."
"So it seems—and you will soon have to use
something else, I think. Stay, I don't see the,
prisoner's name on the list. How is this ?"

" His case was took too late, sir," said Police-
man Tipper.
" Too late ! What ! A return made up with..
out the names of all the prisoners and the charges
against them ! Superintendent Darby never did
this before. Send for him directly."
That officer had, however, just entered the
court, and on being questioned by Mr. Dove, de-