Bull to himself. "Where can the scoundrels be going? I'll return home and mount my horse, I should really like to watch them!"

Mr. Bull did return home, and mounted his horse; after which he followed in the trail of the procession, which, to say the truth, it was no hard matter to take up. He was led by these means out of the borough, and away along the London Road, till the rival lodges of Welverton and Altamont rose up before him. There was still plenty of daylight, for the sun had not yet sunk under the horizon; yet Mr. Bull saw the head of the column turn up the Welverton avenue not without dismay.

"Are they going to sack that poor man's house ?" cried he aloud. 66 By heavens, I'll try whether I can't head them! He has brought all this evil upon us, without doubt; but he has a good heart at bottom, and I must not suffer a hair of his empty head to be hurt, if I can help it."

So saying he wheeled round-put his horse to its speed-gained a little side entrance, which the reformers either did not know or had overlooked, and, cutting through the park, arrived at the hall-door long ere the leading files of the procession had began to emerge from the beech-wood.

"Is his lordship at home?" cried he to the servant who answered the bell.

his usual deference for the peerage, "I beseech you to forget all these matters for the present, and to consider what can be done to avert an immediate danger. There has been a large meeting of reformers in Coketown to-day, and they are coming five thousand strong, to tell your lordship, I suspect, that the decision to which your house has come will not be submitted to by the people of England. I pray God they may not have any worse designs!"

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Marching here," replied his lordship, "on such an errand as that? Why, man, the fact of a division having taken place could not be known in Coketown earlier than a couple of hours ago. I myself travelled post from the house, and we did not break up till seven in the morning!"

I know nothing about all that, my lord," replied Mr. Bull; "but the fact is as I state it; and my humble advice to your lordship is, to get my lady and the family out of the way as soon as possible; because such a mob is sure to frighten them, if no worse come of it."

"The ungrateful scoundrels ! " cried his lordship; "the idiots, too, to think of intimidating me! I fancied they had known better. But I dare say you are right. We'll get the women out of the way at once, and then let them take care how they begin the fray; some of them may come out of it not quite so sound as they imagine."

So spake Lord Boroughdale as he turned round to recommend flight to his wife and daughter, and to arm himself and his servants; but his lordship found, on making the experiment, first, that the ladies would not stir a foot; and next, that his pampered menials absolutely refused to handle the weapons which he would have forced upon them. To say the truth, we cannot pretend to be surprised at the latter of these contingencies, however much the former may grieve us. There is, perhaps, no class of persons living-we speak of the class, of course, making all manner of allowances for honourable exceptions-so little warlike as domestic servants; and when their masters propose to array them against numerical odds, they almost invariably find that there is no pluck in

them. And truly, in this particular instance, the reluctance of some twelve men to take up arms against three or four thousand is not very strenuously to be condemned; for just as his lordship had called them together, and, throwing open what he called his armory, had invited them to provide themselves each with a weapon, the head of the column of reformers appeared, passing beneath the boughs of the trees with the regularity of a trained corps, and covering all, and much more than all, the length of road which was open to the vision of the inmates of Welverton.

"Please your lordship," said the butler, diffidently, "don't ask us to fire upon such a crowd as that. They'll eat us all up, house and all, in a moment! I'm sure that I for one cannot take upon myself the responsibility of shedding the first blood!"

"Nor I! Nor I! Nor I!" shouted the rest, one after another; while all, with one accord, shrank back from handling either fowling-piece or sword; and retreated, certainly not in good order, towards the door.

"And you'll leave me and your lady to be murdered without so much as striking a blow in our defence ?— you scoundrels!" cried his lordship.

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"No, my lord, nothing of the sort," replied the butler. Englishmen never murder in cold blood; and if we offer no resistance, our lives at least will be spared. But let us begin by killing one or two of them, and then we may look out for our own necks!"

"So I am to be plundered, am I; and not one of all you lazy rascals, whom I have fed, and clothed, and housed for years, will stand up in defence of my property?"

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Property is very valuable," was the answer," but life is far more so. Better be plundered in a whole skin than a broken one.'

"Get out of my sight, you chickenhearted miscreants!" exclaimed his lordship. "By heavens, though I stand alone, I will defend my house! An Englishman's house is his castle; and even these miscreants knowing as much, will come to the attack with hearts only half up to their work. Get away with you, you mean-spirited

and over-fed menials! I'll go myself and face them all, see if I don't!"

Away went the servants, too happy to obey the spirit of their master's order, to examine with an over-scrupulous nicety the meaning of the terms in which it was expressed. And away, also, ran Lord Boroughdale to his lady's boudoir, that he might beseech her, with his sweet Evelyn, to escape while there was yet time, and find shelter at the game-keeper's lodge, far away in the glade at the back of the park. But his lordship found Lady Boroughdale as determined and at least as cool as himself.

Fly, and leave you to incur all the danger alone? No, Boroughdale, I should be ashamed to do that; nay, even our gentle Evy here would blush for her mother if she did. But I beseech you to command yourself. The very servants, you see, have fallen off from you; and surely it is unnecessary to point out that your single arm could effect nothing against thousands."

"But they have no weapons, Agnes. What can they do without these?"

"Whatever they please against one man. Take my advice, dear Boroughdale. Go out to them unarmed; speak them fair; tell them that you have given your vote according to your conscience, and will so give it again; and that you resist the passing of this bill, because you are sure that if passed, it would work no good to them, but harm. Tell them that you might, if you were so disposed, call them seriously to account for such a breach of the peace; but that knowing the principle on which they act, you are willing, whatever may be your opinion of its fallacy, to deal tenderly by them. Then bid them go home, and I much deceive myself if you don't find them as tractable and obedient as ever."

Boroughdale protested against this arrangement. His lady was resolute; and the Lady Evelyn, though her whole bearing indicated that she would have preferred a thousand times to be any where else, adhered to her mother's guidance, as became her. Accordingly the three, without waiting for any summons from the invaders, threw open the gates of the fortalice; and, standing together upon the landing-place, watched the column while it closed up its ranks, so as to form a sort of solid square of great length, and deliberately occupied the entire area beneath. There is no denying that even Lady Boroughdale changed colour as she witnessed the perfect discipline of that vast assemblage. Not a word was spoken, except by the leaders; and these issued their orders loudly, yet laconically, as if they had been for years accustomed to the work; while the multitudes broke into double quick, and extended their flanks, precisely as soldiers would have done on a well-organised field of manœuvre. And thus, in less than ten minutes, the whole three thousand gained their proper places; after which they stood-bonneted, indeed, yet otherwise not disrespectfully conducting themselves-in the presence of the peer. There was a silence of, perhaps, two minutes' longer continuance, upon which Lord Boroughdale broke in,

"Gentlemen!" exclaimed he, in his usual tone of stentorian self-possession, "to what circumstance may I attribute the honour of this unlookedfor, and, I must add, undesired visit ?"

"The reformers of Coketown have come to tell your lordship," replied Mr. Beaver," that your opposition, and that of the house to which you belong, cannot and will not avail to stay the passing of the people's mea

sure.

The reformers of Coketown, like the reformers of universal England, are determined to have the bill, the whole bill, and nothing but the bill! and they would therefore respectfully, but strongly, warn your lordship, that the sooner you join them in the great struggle for freedom, the better."

"Gentlemen!" exclaimed his lordship, "I do not know whether you have authorised this person

a

stranger in the place, of whom we know nothing, except only that he edits a newspaper, notorious for the grossness of its libels on private character-I do not know whether you have authorised this person to act as your mouth-piece, and therefore mean me to receive his declarations as yours; but

There was a considerable disposition exhibited here to hoot down the speaker; but it was, by the holding up of Mr. Beaver's hand, instantly repressed; after which Mr. Beaver bowed to his lordship, as if inviting him to proceed. And his lordship did proceed; but it was in a frame of mind which deprived him of all the advantages which his indomitable courage, aided by his extraordinary strength of lungs, usually gave to him. In fact, Lord Boroughdale entirely lost his temper. He was far less alarmed by the display of political power which the editor of the Coketown Journal had manifestly acquired, than he was exasperated at the idea that such a parvenu as he should have obtained any influence at all in what his lordship persisted in regarding as his own district. And the consequences were, that the residue of his harangue consisted in little else than a tirade against demagogues and traitors, who made cats-paws of the people in order to serve their own base ends; and would be sure, when the fitting moment came, to betray the very men whom they had duped. Mr. Beaver allowed his lordship to go on; and, by restraining each burst of popular indignation as it first shewed itself, prevailed upon the multitude in like manner to give him a fair hearing. But he was not unprepared with an answer. Having waited till his lordship wound up by proffering his advice that the people would retire peaceably to their own homes, the editor of the Journal chimed in :

at all of the vote which he gave only four nights ago for the rejection of the great charter of your liberties. Now what you desire to know is, why his lordship, who, when this bill was first laid on the table of the House of Commons, declared publicly that it had his most entire approba tion, because it met every difficulty with which the question of reform was encumbered,-what you desire to know is, why his lordship, having thus sanctioned a measure in its earliest stage, should turn round when it approached to its latest, and by his voice swell the majority of evil-disposed persons, by whom its passage into law has been temporarily obstructed. As soon as his lordship shall have answered that question, then, perhaps, we may put a few more;-such as to demand a reason why he, by whose means principally the Journal was set on foot, should now fall foul of both it and its unfortunate conductor, and cover them with invectives. But then the business which you had in view when you came here relates to the first part, and to that therefore you had better confine yourselves. Have I your authority to act, as his lordship says, the part of your mouth-piece ?" "You have! You have!" shouted three thousand voices at once.

"You hear, my lord," continued Mr. Beaver, turning to his lordship, and looking him full in the face,"you hear what the people of England say. I therefore demand in their names, that you account for what seems to them a gross act of political inconsistency, and to state to them explicitly why you gave your vote for the rejection of the Reformbill."

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"I acknowledge no right on your part, sir," replied Lord Boroughdale, sternly, no, nor on the parts of the deluded multitude whom you have brought here in your train, to require from me a reason for any speech which I may deliver, or any vote which I may give, in my place in the House of Lords. I am no delegate sent thither by you; I hold myself, therefore, responsible not to you, but only to God and my own conscience!"

"Gentlemen, you hear what his lordship says; and the language which bis lordship holds is, as you well

know, that of all his order. So that it comes to this: let a measure be proposed and carried in your house, ever so advantageous to your interests, ever so consistent with your wishes, and it is still competent to a body of some two or three hundred men, who answer only to God and their own consciences, to reject it. Gentlemen, does this state of thraldom to three hundred tyrants content you ?"

"No, no, no!" was the universal

cry.

"I am sure that it does not," continued the speaker. "And so, my lord, if you please, it will be well if you give to the people of England the sort of explanation which they consider themselves justified in requiring, and which they will certainly get, sooner or later, you may take my word for it."

"I will give no explanation at the bidding of a scoundrel such as you!" exclaimed his lordship, fiercely. "But I arrest you, by virtue of my authority as a magistrate; and I call upon the people to aid me in the execution of the law."

His lordship made a spring from the step on which he stood, and would have seized Mr. Beaver, had not the hand of Lady Boroughdale restrained him.

"Be calm, my dear lord!" whispered she, in a voice that quavered "Remember, this is not a time to act decisively, but prudently."

not.

Mr. Beaver, on the contrary, stood with an air of perfect indifference to watch the result; and when he saw that his lordship obeyed the gentle admonition of his wife, he smiled.

"You see, gentlemen," cried he, "how we are governed. His lordship rules us with a rod of iron, and my lady rules him. Things have come to a pretty pass with the liberties of Englishmen !" He then turned round to Lord Boroughdale, and said, "We did not expect, my lord, that you would be ready with an answer; we are not therefore disappointed. But as we come with no unfriendly feeling, so would we have gladly heard from your own lips such a statement as might have reestablished you once more in the hearts of your countrymen. This you have not chosen to give. There remains for us, therefore, only one

course, which is, earnestly to advise, that between this date and the opening of the next session you reconsider the question, and vote not against the people, but with them. Remember that there is excellent authority for saying that the breath of a faction cannot prevail against the will of a united people; so return again into the ranks of the reformers, who, in this quarter of the empire, at all events, never could have become the powerful body that they are but for the assistance your lordship afforded them. Come back to us, my lord, with all the frankness that belongs to you. You will find us grateful, sincere, much attached both to you and to liberty; and so long as your march is by the road which leads to that point, we will follow you. But never flatter yourself that we can be either driven or cajoled out of the line which we have taken. Far be it from me, and from every other reformer, to use the language of menace; yet I think it right, in the names of these my countrymen, to assure you, that a second vote, producing results similar to those occasioned by the first, will not be so easily forgiven! Am I right, gentlemen? Shout, if I be!"

There was raised on the instant a shout, so loud, so deep, so clear, that it awakened the echoes in all the glens and valleys of the park, and made the very glass in the antique oriel windows vibrate. Poor Lady Evelyn grew deadly pale, and was forced to lean upon her mother for support; but neither Lady Boroughdale nor her lord suffered a muscle to quiver, or the crimson to forsake their cheeks for one moment.

because I felt that the parliament had betrayed the country, and I am a parliamentary reformer still. But sooner than vote for this cursed bill -which you call the charter of your liberties, but which I know to be pregnant with evil to all classes,—I will sacrifice life itself, even if it be taken from me piecemeal! Do not, therefore, delude yourselves into the persuasion that my vote next session will be different from what it was four days ago. I will resist the passing of the bill to the death; and if you choose to play a game where the stake is so serious, I will certainly do my best to beat you!"

"You hear, gentlemen, what his lordship has said. But never mind. He has veered about before now, and he will veer about again. And if not, why then we will see who is likely to get the better in the game of which his lordship speaks."

This brief address was followed by a word of command, in obedience to which the solid square broke into column, and with a march as regular as had marked their progress up the avenue, the whole crowd passed down again. Not the slightest violence was offered to any living thing,—not so much as the branch of a tree or of a bush was broken; but, keeping steadily to the carriage-road, the reformers filed through the gate, and retraced their steps in the dusk of the evening to Coketown.

"A most extrordinary revolution this!" cried his lordship, as he and my lady re-entered the drawing"The people's minds are entirely changed. I never saw any thing so marvellous!"

room.

"It is more than marvellous," replied her ladyship, "it is quite frightful! But that we cannot help. You must do your duty; and the results we shall leave, as we have done others scarcely less alarming, to the care of Him without whose interposition empires neither rise nor fall."

It was on the fifth day subsequent to the events described in the preceding chapter that Mr. Beaver's correspondent in the Minories received from his friend at Coketown a letter to the following effect :

MY DEAR JEM,-The good cause progresses gloriously. We had a grand field-day yesterday; and never, do I assure you, have troops behaved better, either in the presence of the enemy or elsewhere. Our discipline is perfect.