were charged, sabred, and dispersed ; after which the fugitives, both male and female, were gathered together and conveyed under a sufficient escort to Altamont Castle. But Frederick went not with them. Putting him

self at the head of about forty of the yeomen, he pushed on to Coketown, where such occurrences had already taken place as cannot rightly be placed upon record at the very fagend of a chapter.

Frederick Blackston had found that the business of assembling a troop of yeomanry together was no sinecure. Not that there existed on the parts of the men the slightest disinclination to obey his summons. Honour be to the class from which the yeomanry force of England is taken! There is none more brave,-there is none more devoted to their country,-there is none more willing, at least for a spurt, to encounter any conceivable amount of hazard and of hardship; but it is one thing to call out a regiment of cavalry by sound of trumpet, or of infantry by beat of drum, and quite another to summon by word of mouth, yeoman after yeoman, throughout a circuit of a quarter of a county, and send him to his rallying place. Frederick Blackston, however, knowing the district well, and being by the tenantry as much respected as he was known, galloped round the outskirts of his father's troop in a space of time which was marvellous; and therefore found himself within the compass of perhaps four hours from the arrival of the alarm, at the head, as we have stated, of fifty stout and well-mounted yeomen. The rallying point for the troop being the lawn in front of Altamont, Frederick mustered them there in due form; and being a soldier by profession, he did not omit to serve out to each trooper his thirty rounds of ammunition. Then being tacitly accepted in the room of his father, he put himself at their head, and away they went at a long trot towards Coketown.

Of the circumstances which induced the leader of that gallant band to change his line of march and open the campaign at Welverton, sufficient notice was taken in the previous chapter. We need not therefore recur to it, further than to state that Frederick and the Lady Evelyn found an opportunity-Lord knows howof expressing each to the other the

sense of their common gratitude that both were safe; and that Mr. Beaver, having acted as protector to the ladies till a detachment of the cavalry relieved him, took leave of his fair protégées in a manner singularly dramatic. Let us now, therefore, follow at once the course of the adventurous cavaliers who, scarce more than forty in number, pushed forward, after detaching ten men to protect the ladies, with the design of saving at least a remnant of Coketown from destruction, or of perishing in the attempt. Forward they rode, as those are apt to do who, staking their lives on a great adventure, find time to calculate the cost, and ascertain that it is serious. Neither was the sense of awe-for it would wrong them to speak of it as alarm-in any degree diminished as their nearer approach to the scene of the Reformers' operations made more and more conspicuous to them the results in which all such operations are sure to terminate. The whole town of Coketown appeared to be in a blaze. And round the fire, and even within it, the forms of men seemed to be flitting in attitudes such as might have furnished an admirable subject to Rubens, when his imagination, always too vehement for reason and for judgment, happened to be in its height. But if the effect was striking while yet one sense that of sight only opened up an avenue to the understanding, much more startling was the influence excited so soon as hearing, in like manner, came into play. As they approached the town, the noises which fell upon their ears were terrific. I know of no sound in nature more awful than that of a furious conflagration. The hissing of the flames; the crackling of the embers; the fall, from time to time, of masses of masonry, occasioning by its collision with the flames a deadening sound, which may be conceived by

such as have heard it, but which defies all act of description, these things alone are enough to make the hair of him who listens to them stand on end. But if to these you add the hubbub of a thousand human voices, -tremendous under every circumstance, but more especially if they be raised in anger, or indicate the progress of passions violent as the fire itself, then, indeed, the effect is truly appalling. Now all these sights and sounds greeted the forty yeomen, as they approached a town in which the horrors of a sack appeared to be enacted; and if the bravest heart among them beat quicker and more uncasily for the moment, let not the steadiest veteran in England's noble army find fault with it for having done so, It is no light thing in him who for the first time faces danger on an extensive scale, to face it becomingly. We have been told that it requires at least two campaigns to make a cool and steady soldier. Let no man, therefore, think meanly of these yeomen, even if it should appear that their pulses throbbed with more than usual vehemence as they approached the town.

We are not going to copy from the public prints of the day, by describing how the cavalry rode up the main street, and how paralysed the mob became when they saw form up on one side of the market-place what they verily believed to be at least a brigade of regular soldiers. The Riotact was read, of course-it was full time to read it; and then, having strict orders to use as far as possible the flats of their swords, the yeomanry charged. Never was rout more complete. Hundreds--we may say thousands-of the hardiest and bravest of England's sons fled like sheep before the attack of forty,—so incalculable are the advantages of discipline and a good cause over mere physical strength, and the mere accumulation of numbers.

With the exception of the Courthouse, the Welverton Arms, and one or two private houses on either side of the latter, Coketown was saved by the well-timed charge of Frederick Blackston and his yeomanry; for his father, though he bravely made the attempt, utterly failed in restoring order. He found, to his horror, that he was himself become an object of

at least jealousy to the Liberals of his own borough; and he was glad to escape, in common with the mayor and corporation, from the many missiles which were directed against them. But that which the Whig member failed to effect, the soldier, who cared for no distinctions in politics, accomplished. Long before dawn the rioters were driven from the place, with a loss to the yeomen of only two men wounded-to the incendiaries of somewhere about eight killed, and twenty or thirty more or less seriously injured.

Time passed, working, as he wended on his way, results even more extraordinary than those to which his progress usually gives birth. The noble house of Boroughdale, having sheltered its several members under the roof of Altamont Castle, removed, at the conclusion of something less than a week, to London. They could not, indeed, return to Welverton Manor, for that was a heap of ruins; and the associations connected with the neighbourhood were, by this time, scarcely such as to seduce the noble earl into the extravagance of hiring some other man's house in the vicinity. Indeed, his lordship made no secret of his determination to see the Reform struggle to an end, and, in the event of the question being carried, to find a home for himself in some other country, where the tyranny of the many existed not. But the Lord Boroughdale had often threatened before. One of his last declarations in the House of Lords, after the passing of the Popish Relief Bill, amounted to this, that he would never sit or vote there again till the bishops were expelled. Yet he sat and voted, yea, and rose and spoke too, with excellent effect, on many and most contradictory occasions. Few persons, therefore, gave the smallest heed to his asseverations, however vehement they might be, touching his disgust with political warfare. And hence, when he did remove to the metropolis, both the Blackstons and the public of at large confidently believed that he would get Welverton restored with as little delay as possible, and come back to resume his natural place in the county, of which his ancestors had for many generations been the chiefs.

How was it with Frederick and the Lady Evelyn during that week which, by the force of circumstances, threw them at least under the same roof, if not constantly together? Oh! why should I touch upon a topic so sacred? Have any, who cast their eyes over these pages, ever loved, and loved in sincerity and truth? Have they known what it is to live only in the presence of one cherished object; yet there, within the influence of that holy atmosphere around them, to be lifted for ever above earth and all that pertains to it? Have self, and the feelings which depend upon it, died out, and all their happiness been found in promoting the happiness of another? Yet, desiring this, have they found themselves drawn, as if by some magic spell, for ever and for ever, to seek one, and only one companionship? If it be so, then need we spare ourselves the trouble of explaining that at all hours, and in all places, Frederick and Evelyn met; that their greetings were the sweetest that ever befell since our first father bade his helpmate welcome in Eden's exquisite bowers; and their partings not sad, only because there was the prospect of what another day or another hour would bring forth; that a moment would suffice to communicate and to receive more than whole years of ordinary intercourse produce; and that past sorrows and future cares were alike forgotten in the intense, and let us add the blessed, enjoyment of the present. Oh, happy, happy time! when continually the exclamation is on our lips, that God himself can give none more perfect than the happiness which the passing moment affords. Oh, season of joy! and, surely, of disinterestedness also, when all our thoughts find their origin and their end, not in ourselves, but in another. If ye were but permitted to endure, where would be man's difficulties or trials? If ye were not taken away, where man's scope for the exercise of patience, and resignation, and faith? Alas, poor children! the cup was very sweet, and they drank it to the dregs. Yet I blame them not for having done so; neither do they cheat me of my compassion. They were innocent as the light of day that shone round them. They were happy while the brief season of unrestricted inter

VOL. XXIV. NO. CXLIII.

course continued-happier far than minds constituted differently from theirs have the power even to conceive. Yet they were laying up for themselves a store of bitterness against the future; and the future, when it became the present, failed not to repay them. But why linger over reflections such as these? They have no tint of novelty in them. The tale has been told a thousand times, in a thousand generations; and will not cease to burden the annals of our race till the last of these generations shall have passed away.

"The course of true love never did run smooth;"

and so, when the moment of separation came, Frederick and the Lady Evelyn found it.

Was Mr. John Beaver-the preserver, as he modestly insinuated, of the ladies' honour and the gentlemen's lives-neglected all this while, and forgotten? Nothing of the sort. To Mr. Blackston's inexpressible astonishment, he saw the demagogue and editor admitted to a degree of intimacy within the circle of Welverton Manor such as never had been afforded to himself even in the early days of Lord Boroughdale's reforming propensities. Mr. Beaver not only obtained an audience of his lordship whenever he thought fit to call, but was by the ladies welcomed like an old friend, and dismissed again apparently with regret. And once or twice, when the member ventured to throw out a hint that of all the mischief which had occurred Mr. Beaver was the origin, both the noble lord and the several members of his family scouted the insinuation. “No, no, Mr. Blackston; you must look elsewhere than to such as he for the root of the evil which we both deplore. Mr. Beaver, as any other clever man in his situation might be expected to do, has only taken advantage of the circumstances of the times to raise himself into importance. His conduct during the late riots shews that he meant no harm to others, whatever advantages he might desire to secure for himself. But will you say as much of his majesty's ministers, or of the party-I mean the political party properly so calledwhich supports them?

When noble

PP

lords threaten, from their places in parliament, to violate the laws in the event of their particular crotchets sustaining a defeat, what can we look for among the common herd except a ready adaptation of the principle to their own cases? You may thank the authors of the Reform-bill for all this mischief; and though no prophet, I venture to add that you will have yet a great deal more of the same sort for which to be grateful."

Mr. Blackston never entered into an argument with his noble friend on this or on any other subject. He was content to smile internally, while he remembered the violence with which, not quite two years previously, the same noble personage had clamoured for reform. Yet where persons hold opinions so widely at variance as those of Lord Boroughdale on the one hand, and of the member for Coketown on the other, a lengthened familiarity, even if it operate only to the mutual interchange of friendly offices, soon becomes a lengthened penance. It was, therefore, with a degree of satisfaction, which he only shared with his guests of a week, that Mr. Blackston beheld them at length pack themselves into a couple of carriages, and take the road for London with the undisguised design of interrupting for a while all intercourse with the county of

The historian has related how, on the 6th of December, 1831, the two houses of parliament met to discuss once again the merits of the Reformbill. The same authority has left it upon record that the bill, after a stout resistance, passed the Commons, and was carried, as it had been carried before, into the House of Lords. But the events of the preceding autumn, together with a rumoured accession to their numbers, had operated a great change in the sentiments of the peers of England. The bill was ordered to be read a second time by a majority of forty-one; and passed as a matter of course into committee. Not yet, however, were the leaders of the party convinced that the hour for receding gracefully from the struggle was come. On the first clause, which brought about a debate, the ministers were defeated; and they lost not a moment in tendering their resignation. It was accepted, and an effort made to form a Tory govern

ment; but the Tories could not agree among themselves, and there was confusion every where. Then came the Whigs back to power an hundredfold more consolidated than ever; then withdrew a large body of the peers from all further concern in the business of the House; and then, and not till then, the Reforming prime minister began to ask himself the question, whether he had not gone too far? It was now, however, too late to pause. One resolution after another was proposed and carried; till in due time the constitution, which had been the boast of Englishmen for centuries, and under which England had grown great and powerful, passed away, that it might be succeeded by a device concocted in an hour; and rendered legal, if not permanent, by violence.

Among the Lords who gave up the Reform-bill into the hands of its authors, Lord Boroughdale was not one. He had cheered it on its course when it was first propounded; he was the last of his order to withdraw from opposing it. Night after night he and a handful more went down to speak and to vote against clauses, to defeat which they knew that they were powerless. But Lord Boroughdale was one of those who always act, or imagine that they are acting, upon principle. What was it to him, though the inefficient resistance which he offered enabled the ministers to delude the people by sophistical declarations, or placed them in the light of a body of statesmen who carried their own measure fairly, and by the legitimate means of outvoting-we will not say outreasoning-their rivals? "Fiat justitia, ruat cœlum," was Lord Boroughdale's motto. There may be practical evil in this, but the abstract principle is a just one: so he who had been one of the principal agents in driving out his old leader and bringing in the Whigs, desisted not from making a display of his hostility to the latter, even when the former was content to stand aloof. Lord Boroughdale's game was losing one, as all the world knows. He saw it to an end; and then, taking with him his wife and daughter, he passed over to the Continent, in order, as he expressed it, that his eyes might not look upon the downfal of his country.

But

a

Ar the rise and fall of the leaf, the husbandmen of England turn their children over to the care of the dis

trict apothecary, who purges and bleeds them for the good of his shop as well as their constitutions; but in Scotland the same class of men despatch their children to the sea, to bathe in its tide and drink its unsavoury waters-once a-year, at least, in obedience to an ancient receipt for the preservation of health. This takes place during the summer, and before harvest commences; the days are then long, the air hot, and each inland glen and village pours out its people in compliance with use and wont-a Mede and Persian law, which altereth not.

My first acquaintance with the Solway commenced in that way, and happened in my fifteenth year. I was not aware that I was at all ailing; for I ate well, drank well, and slept well; and if a hawk's nest was to be harried on a tottering tower, or an hour's harmless devilry to be done in the land, I was with the foremost. I thought that something more than usual was in the wind when three old sagacious crones, who settled all matters of scandal, or of manners, or of domestic difficulty in the land, came to our gate-end, and had a whole evening's gossip with my mother. I was in a small closet, where I kept some odd volumes of ballads, and overheard the whole palaver.

"I'll tell ye what, gudewife," said the eldest of the three," the bairn's a delicate bairn; and though he sodded up my lumhead, and maist reekit the soul out of douce Davie Lamont when he came to pray wi' me, and pou'd a' my red-cheeked Leadingtons, and canna haud his hands off our Jock's Jenny whenever the lassie comes his way, he's nevertheless an ailing laddie; and though it may pain a mither's ear to hear it, far gane in a decline!"

"A decline!" exclaimed the second district authority; "deil haet o' a decline's in a' his skin, whilk is as healthy as a new-blawn rose, and

as white as the driven snaw-he taks that after his ain mither- and he's as fou o' mischief as an egg's fou o' meat. Decline! he has owre meikle health o' his ain, and that's just as bad as owre little; and the best thing for that is a gude douk—and better still, a gude drink of the Solway whare it's sautest-and that's beside the rock o' Colvend, called Lot's Wife, -I trow, will take the groskiness out on him, or I watna what will!" and she gave her staff-which had a head of tup's horn, and was shod on the other end with a brass virl-a knock on the floor to give sanction to her opinion.

"I differ frae ye baith," said the third authority, "and I differ in this: I think the bairn's just in the debeatable land, atween life and death; and though I own that the bit starts of harmless mischief whilk he's prone to is an evidence of life and spunk, yet, oh, sirs! a' that ken aught of poor human nature maun own that we will be at the last gasp afore we put the deil out o' our minds, or gie the back o' the hand to daft notions; and if ye will observe the bairn, ye will see that his appetite is not natural; ony little health he has is at mealtime. But I agree wi' ye baith in this really this wee drap bitters is the best I ever tasted since Willie o' Brandy burn grew owre stiff for smuggling but it's a sinful, deluding drink; and warst wi' them that care least about it, I think;-I agree wi' ye in this, as I said, that the Solway water at the full of the moon is worth a' the doctors that ever gat diplomas, as they ca' their permits to poison, kill, and slay; sae awa' to the saut water wi' him; and, oh! let him take care of the wild sea, for mony a mither's ee it has made wet, and mony a fair face it has feasted on!"

"But something mair maun be done, cummers," said the first crone, "than merely sending the bairn to the Solway; we maun lodge him wi' some ane wha fears God and eschews evil; and where will ye find sic a ane on that wild coast? There's the