Page:Horrid Mysteries Volume 3.djvu/155

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THE HORRID MYSTERIES.
149

bottle he carried under his arm. He inquired after the name of the wine, and it happened unfortunately to be his Lordship's favourite liqour. He began, therefore, to make new offers; but the host was equally inexorable: nay, he was even so malicious as to extoll the deliciousness of the wine to the skies; adding, that he had found it extremely difficult to get a bottle of it, and that he would take no price for it. The Duke inquiring after the reason of such strange behaviour, the host, who was impatient to display his attachment to the Count, enumerated our merits in a most hyperbolical manner, and laid a particular stress on the description he was pleased to give of our noble spirit and bravery. "These two gentlemen do, indeed, travel in a simple and unexpensive manner," he concluded: "however, I will be hanged if they are not two foreign princes who travel incognito." These words had the desired effect on the Duke: he now began seriously to think that hisheat