The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-10 00:00:00

LORD RANELAGEL

Lord Ranelagh is well known as one of the finest cavalry
officers of his time. But it was not known until now that
he was as skilful with the pen as with the sword. The
communication which he has just addressed to the South
Middlesex Corps on the Rachel case shows that the beau
sabreur is also a complete letter-writer. He find that he
has got so mixed up with the rogue and the fool who were
defendant and prosecutrix in the twice-tried charge, that it
was necessary for him to vindicate his fair fame. This
vindication he has addressed to the volunteer regiment of
which he is commander. He declares that it is neither
Aladame Rachel nor Mrs. Borrodaile who deserves the
pity of the public, but he, Thomas Jones, Viscount
Ranelagh, colonel of the South Middlesex. In the first
place, he was " annoyed by the vulgarity of Madame
Rachel in mentioning his name (as for introduction) to an
odd-looking female muffled up in veils." That was bad
enough. Worse was to come. Shortly afterwards he
received a letter from the " odd-looking female" demand-
ing £1,700 of him, to which he replied by advising that
the said female should be shut up in Bedlam, or
such other asylum for the mentally-afflicted as her
friends might desire. It would have been well
if his lordship had been content with this very
proper answer. But, unfortunately for him, that
" idlest of curiosities " which first induced him to " stroll
occasionally into Madame Rachel's shop," and which there
exposed him to the annoyance of an introduction to the
odd-looking, muffled-isp female, induced him to consent
to an interview with her unmuffled. He found her as
" odd" in her language as she had been in her looks. She
made the most " wild " assertions, declared apparently
that he was the darling of her soul, her heart's delight,
and that he, whose name was Thomas, was the " William"
upon whom she had been showering all the epistolary en-
dearments of an affectionate, not to say passionate nature.
Nay, she had not only written to him, she had seen him.
Not always had she been doomed to communicate with
him through the unsympathising postman ; she herself
had gazed upon the noble and youthful features of this 55-
year-old nobleman. He could not deny that—he would
not throw her off—he would not break her tender and
loving heart. To all of which the beau sabreur replied,
"To a madhouse go !" Lord Ranelagh is a bachelor ;
yet still, as a man about town, he ought to have known
that of all dangerous emotions the sense of spretce
injuria forince is the most dangerous. Has not Virgil
sung it ? Did not Troy perish because Paris preferred
Venus to Juno ? Lord Ranelagh was to experience it.
The odd-looking female, finding her, affections blighted,
her gushing emotions suddenly checked in their full
stream, and turned to ice by the coldness of contempt,
turned nasty. She instituted proceedings against
Madame Rachel, indeed, but with the full intention of
including her scornful hero. From that time to this,
Lord Ranelagh has had no peace of mind. Now
he has had to appear before Mr. Knox at Marl-
borough-street, now before Recorder Russell at the
Old Bailey, and now before Commissioner Kerr
(most wonderful of commissioners he) in the same select
court. The unfortunate nobleman has been made a spec-
tacle to men and women, and such angels as cared to look
on. The newspapers declared that there was no smoke
without fire. His own corps began to cry out against
him. Worse than all Serjeant Ballantine cross-examined
him. Would it not have been better to pay the
odd-looking female her £1,700 rather than have
exposed himself to all these accumulated misfor.
fortunes ? An ordinary man would have thought
so. But Lord Ranelagh is not an ordinary man. He
determined to brave everybody—recorder, commissioner,
serjeant, the odd-looking female, and that many-headed,
many-tongued monster, theßritish public. Sohehas written
his justification, and in doing so he has given the offend-
ing serjeant something more than a Roland for his Oliver.
Serjeant Ballantine had the impudence to accuse him of
going to Madame Rachel's for an improper purpose. " I
should be very sorry to change morals with Serjeant
Ballantine," replies Viscount Ranelagh. " People who
live in glass houses should be careful about stone-throw-
ing ; and the serjeant inhabits a regular crystal palace."
We hope the learned gentleman will enjoy the joke. We
cannot say that it was altogether unprovoked. But when
all is said, when every allowance is made for Lord
Ranelagh, we must still ask him what business had ho
at Madame Rachel's ? He knew her profession. Did
he go to find out her customers ? Was the "idlest
of curiosities " which induced him and " a great number"
of gentlemen who "strolled occasionally into Madame
Rachel's shop," the curiosity to know who were the
faded belles that went there to be made beautiful for
ever ? Was he so ungenerous as to pry into the wonders
of that mysterious toilette ; to ascertain whose were
the grim and wrinkled features that lay concealed
beneath the smooth and youthful enamel ; whose were
the grey and grizzled locks that came out from the hands
of this Medea golden and glorious ? Was that a
fitting amusement for an officer and a gentleman ?
The answer will certainly be in the negative, and the
public, while accepting Lord Ranelagh's version of the
Borrodaile-Rachel affair, will not acquit him of indiscre-
tion, to use no milder word, in " strolling with numerous
other gentlemen " into a resort of such a very questionable
character. There is a lesson in this matter also for the other
sex. The women who so foolishly wish to eh eat time by cover-
ing their bodies with deadly pigments will now learn that
they are not unwatehed. They are known to the very rre n
whom they wish to deceive. There are plenty of Lord
Ranelaghs in the world—men who have nothing better to
do than to "stroll" about in somewhat questionable
places, and to learn very questionable secrets,
and to make them food for laughter over the wine-
glass—for cynical jest at the club. These fair deceivers
had better, then, give up the attempt to carry on a decep-
tion which deceives no one, least of all the persons for
whom the deception is expressly intended,— Manchester j
Courier.