Elliston and De Camp, concealed beneath
the stage, had provided themselves with small ratan canes, and as
their brother-actor slowly and solemnly descended, they applied their
sticks sharply and rapidly to the calves of his legs, unprotected by
the plate armour that graced his shins. Poor Dowton with difficulty
preserved his gravity of countenance, or refrained from the utterance
of a yell of agony while in the presence of the audience. His lower
limbs, beneath the surface of the stage, frisked and curvetted about
"like a horse in Ducrow's arena." His passage below was maliciously
made as deliberate as possible. At length, wholly let down, and
completely out of the sight of the audience, he looked round the
obscure regions beneath the stage to discover the base perpetrators of
the outrage. He was speechless with rage and burning for revenge.
Elliston and his companion had of course vanished. Unfortunately, at
that moment, Charles Holland, another member of the company,
splendidly dressed, appeared in sight. The enraged Dowton, mistaking
his man, and believing that Holland's imperturbability of manner was
assumed and an evidence of his guilt, seized a mop at that moment at
hand immersed in very dirty water, and thrusting it in his face,
utterly ruined wig, ruffles, point-lace, and every particular of his
elaborate attire.
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