"New Arabian Nights" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stevenson Robert Louis)

DURING his residence in London, the accomplished Prince
Florizel of Bohemia gained the affection of all classes
by the seduction of his manner and by a well-considered
generosity. He was a remarkable man even by what was
known of him; and that was but a small part of what he
actually did. Although of a placid temper in ordinary
circumstances, and accustomed to take the world with as
much philosophy as any ploughman, the Prince of Bohemia
was not without a taste for ways of life more
adventurous and eccentric than that to which he was
destined by his birth. Now and then, when he fell into
a low humour, when there was no laughable play to
witness in any of the London theatres, and when the
season of the year was unsuitable to those field sports
in which he excelled all competitors, he would summon
his confidant and Master of the Horse, Colonel
Geraldine, and bid him prepare himself against an
evening ramble. The Master of the Horse was a young
officer of a brave and even temerarious disposition.
He greeted the news with delight, and hastened to make
ready. Long practice and a varied acquaintance of life
had given him a singular facility in disguise; he could
adapt, not only his face and bearing, but his voice and
almost his thoughts, to those of any rank, character,
or nation; and in this way he diverted attention from
the Prince, and sometimes gained admission for the pair
into strange societies. The civil authorities were
never taken into the secret of these adventures; the
imperturbable courage of the one and the ready
invention and chivalrous devotion of the other had
brought them through a score of dangerous passes; and
they grew in confidence as time went on.

One evening in March they were driven by a sharp fall
of sleet into an Oyster Bar in the immediate
neighbourhood of Leicester Square. Colonel Geraldine
was dressed and painted to represent a person connected
with the Press in reduced circumstances; while the
Prince had, as usual, travestied his appearance by the
addition of false whiskers and a pair of large adhesive
eyebrows. These lent him a shaggy and weather-beaten
air, which, for one of his urbanity, formed the most
impenetrable disguise. Thus equipped, the commander and
his satellite sipped their brandy and soda in security.

The bar was full of guests, male and female; but though
more than one of these offered to fall into talk with
our adventurers, none of them promised to grow