The Craquepipe & Slappers

…of rude mechanism Solomon the sapient and the harlequin Hieronymus, who had built a sort of shrine outside the Craquepipe & Slappers, that the low-born and credulous might approach in reverence and …er … squatting or on bended knee make oblations. There she found them, Solomon conducting for the benefit of his congregation of Gummidges some specious simulacrum of ceremony, the cod solemnity whereof was sadly offset by the caperings…

Thereupon, the shrine outside the Craquepipe & Slappers being hastily dismantled, the charivari was trundled through the clogging smoke to the graffito’d frontage of … er … Squattocrat Towers, where a mighty throng had convened itself. St Just, not looking directly at the gorgon, withal yet feeling his blood run cold, vouchsafed that, being in possession of the keys to that palace, he would essay to produce before the crowd…