"Do not, my good friends--I am sure you will not--forget our talkone night--in your house, Dennis--about this person. No mercy, noquarter, no two beams of his house to be left standing where thebuilder placed them! Fire, the saying goes, is a good servant, buta bad master. Makes it HIS master; he deserves no better. But Iam sure you will be firm, I am sure you will be very resolute, I amsure you will remember that he thirsts for your lives, and those ofall your brave companions. If you ever acted like staunchfellows, you will do so to-day. Won"t you, Dennis--won"t you,Hugh?"
The two looked at him, and at each other; then bursting into a roarof laughter, brandished their staves above their heads, shookhands, and hurried out.
When they had been gone a little time, Gashford followed. Theywere yet in sight, and hastening to that part of the adjacentfields in which their fellows had already mustered; Hugh waslooking back, and flourishing his hat to Barnaby, who, delightedwith his trust, replied in the same way, and then resumed hispacing up and down before the stable-door, where his feet had worna path already. And when Gashford himself was far distant, andlooked back for the last time, he was still walking to and fro,with the same measured tread; the most devoted and the blithestchampion that ever maintained a post, and felt his heart lifted upwith a brave sense of duty, and determination to defend it to thelast.
Smiling at the simplicity of the poor idiot, Gashford betookhimself to Welbeck Street by a different path from that which heknew the rioters would take, and sitting down behind a curtain inone of the upper windows of Lord George Gordon"s house, waitedimpatiently for their coming. They were so long, that although he knew it had been settled they should come that way, he had amisgiving they must have changed their plans and taken some otherroute. But at length the roar of voices was heard in theneighbouring fields, and soon afterwards they came thronging past,in a great body.
However, they were not all, nor nearly all, in one body, but were,as he soon found, divided into four parties, each of which stoppedbefore the house to give three cheers, and then went on; theleaders crying out in what direction they were going, and callingon the spectators to join them. The first detachment, carrying, byway of banners, some relics of the havoc they had made inMoorfields, proclaimed that they were on their way to Chelsea,whence they would return in the same order, to make of the spoilthey bore, a great bonfire, near at hand. The second gave out thatthey were bound for Wapping, to destroy a chapel; the third, thattheir place of destination was East Smithfield, and their objectthe same. All this was done in broad, bright, summer day. Gaycarriages and chairs stopped to let them pass, or turned back toavoid them; people on foot stood aside in doorways, or perhapsknocked and begged permission to stand at a window, or in the hall,until the rioters had passed: but nobody interfered with them; andwhen they had gone by, everything went on as usual.
There still remained the fourth body, and for that the secretarylooked with a most intense eagerness. At last it came up. It wasnumerous, and composed of picked men; for as he gazed down amongthem, he recognised many upturned faces which he knew well--thoseof Simon Tappertit, Hugh, and Dennis in the front, of course. Theyhalted and cheered, as the others had done; but when they movedagain, they did not, like them, proclaim what design they had.
Hugh merely raised his hat upon the bludgeon he carried, andglancing at a spectator on the opposite side of the way, was gone.
Gashford followed the direction of his glance instinctively, andsaw, standing on the pavement, and wearing the blue cockade, SirJohn Chester. He held his hat an inch or two above his head, topropitiate the mob; and, resting gracefully on his cane, smilingpleasantly, and displaying his dress and person to the very bestadvantage, looked on in the most tranquil state imaginable. Forall that, and quick and dexterous as he was, Gashford had seen himrecognise Hugh with the air of a patron. He had no longer any eyesfor the crowd, but fixed his keen regards upon Sir John.
He stood in the same place and posture until the last man in theconcourse had turned the corner of the street; then very deliberately took the blue cockade out of his hat; put it carefullyin his pocket, ready for the next emergency; refreshed himself witha pinch of snuff; put up his box; and was walking slowly off, whena passing carriage stopped, and a lady"s hand let down the glass.
Sir John"s hat was off again immediately. After a minute"sconversation at the carriage-window, in which it was apparent thathe was vastly entertaining on the subject of the mob, he steppedlightly in, and was driven away.
The secretary smiled, but he had other thoughts to dwell upon, andsoon dismissed the topic. Dinner was brought him, but he sent itdown untasted; and, in restless pacings up and down the room, andconstant glances at the clock, and many futile efforts to sit downand read, or go to sleep, or look out of the window, consumed fourweary hours. When the dial told him thus much time had crept away,he stole upstairs to the top of the house, and coming out upon theroof sat down, with his face towards the east.
Heedless of the fresh air that blew upon his heated brow, of thepleasant meadows from which he turned, of the piles of roofs andchimneys upon which he looked, of the smoke and rising mist hevainly sought to pierce, of the shrill cries of children at theirevening sports, the distant hum and turmoil of the town, the cheerful country breath that rustled past to meet it, and to droop,and die; he watched, and watched, till it was dark save for thespecks of light that twinkled in the streets below and far away-and,as the darkness deepened, strained his gaze and grew moreeager yet.
"Nothing but gloom in that direction, still!" he mutteredrestlessly. "Dog! where is the redness in the sky, you promisedme!"