During the strike in Lancashire the people had never plundered, except afew provision shops, chiefly rifled by boys, and their acts of violencehad been confined to those with whom they were engaged in what on thewhole might be described as fair contest. They solicited sustenanceoften in great numbers, but even then their language was mild andrespectful, and they were easily satisfied and always grateful. A bodyof two thousand persons, for example--the writer speaks of circumstanceswithin his own experience--quitted one morning a manufacturing town inLancashire, when the strike had continued for some time and began to beseverely felt, and made a visit to a neighbouring squire of high degree.They entered his park in order--men, women, and children--and thenseating themselves in the immediate vicinity of the mansion, they sent adeputation to announce that they were starving and to entreat relief.In the instance in question, the lord of the domain was absent in thefulfilment of those public duties which the disturbed state of thecountry devolved on him. His wife, who had a spirit equal to theoccasion, notwithstanding the presence of her young children who mightwell have aggravated feminine fears, received the deputation herself;told them that of course she was unprepared to feed so many, but that,if they promised to maintain order and conduct themselves with decorum,she would take measures to satisfy their need. They gave their pledgeand remained tranquilly encamped while preparations were making tosatisfy them. Carts were sent to a neighbouring town for provisions;the gamekeepers killed what they could, and in a few hours the multitudewere fed without the slightest disturbance, or the least breach of theirself-organised discipline. When all was over, the deputation waitedagain on the lady to express to her their gratitude, and the gardensof this house being of celebrity in the neighbourhood, they requestedpermission that the people might be allowed to walk through them,pledging themselves that no flower should be plucked and no fruittouched. The permission was granted: the multitude in order, each fileunder a chief and each commander of the files obedient to a superiorofficer, then made a progress through the beautiful gardens of theirbeautiful hostess. They even passed through the forcing houses andvineries. Not a border was trampled on, not a grape plucked; and whenthey quitted the domain, they gave three cheers for the fair castellan.
The Hell-cats and their following were of a different temper to thesegentle Lancashire insurgents. They destroyed and ravaged; sacked andgutted houses; plundered cellars; proscribed bakers as enemies of thepeople; sequestrated the universal stores of all truck and tommy shops;burst open doors, broke windows, destroyed the gas works, that the townsat night might be in darkness; took union workhouses by storm, burnedrate-books in the market-place, and ordered public distribution ofloaves of bread and flitches of bacon to a mob--cheering and laughingamid flames and rapine. In short they robbed and rioted; the policecould make no head against them; there was no military force; the wholedistrict was in their possession: and hearing that a battalion ofthe Coldstreams were coming down by a train, the Bishop ordered allrailroads to be destroyed, and if the Hell-cats had not been too drunkto do his bidding and he too tipsy to repeat it, it is probable that agreat destruction of these public ways might have taken place.
Does the reader remember Diggs' tommy shop? And Master Joseph? Well aterrible scene took place there. The Wodgate girl, with a back like agrasshopper, of the Baptist school religion, who had married Tummas,once a pupil of the Bishop and still his fervent follower, although hehad cut open his pupil's head, was the daughter of a man who had workedmany years in Diggs' field, had suffered much under his intolerableyoke, and at the present moment was deep in his awful ledger. She hadheard from her first years of the oppression of Diggs and had impressedit on her husband, who was intolerant of any tyranny except at Wodgate.Tummas and his wife, and a few chosen friends, therefore went out onemorning to settle the tommy-book of her father with Mr Diggs. A whisperof their intention had got about among those interested in the subject.It was a fine summer morning, some three hours from noon, the shop wasshut, indeed it had not been opened since the riots, and all the lowerwindows of the dwelling were closed, barred, and bolted.
A crowd of women had collected. There was Mistress Page and MistressPrance, old Dame Toddles and Mrs Mullins, Liza Gray and the comely damewho was so fond of society that she liked even a riot.
"Master Joseph they say has gone to the North," said the comely dame.
"I wonder if old Diggs is at home?" said Mrs Mullins.
"He won't show I'll be sworn," said old Dame Toddles.
"Here are the Hell-cats," said the comely dame. "Well I do declare theymarch like reglars; two, four, six, twelve; a good score at the least."
The Hell-cats briskly marched up to the elm-trees that shaded the canalbefore the house, and then formed in line opposite to it. They werearmed with bludgeons, crowbars, and hammers. Tummas was at the head andby his side his Wodgate wife. Stepping forth alone, amid the cheeringof the crowd of women, the pupil of the Bishop advanced to the door ofDiggs' house, gave a loud knock and a louder ring. He waited patientlyfor several minutes; there was no reply from the interior, and thenTummas knocked and rang again.
"It's very awful," said the comely dame.
"It's what I always dreamt would come to pass," said Liza Gray, "eversince Master Joseph cut my poor baby over the eye with his three footrule."
"I think there can be nobody within," said Mrs Prance.
"Old Diggs would never leave the tommy without a guard," said Mrs Page.
"Now lads," said Tummas looking round him and making a sign, andimmediately some half dozen advanced with their crowbars and were aboutto strike at the door, when a window in the upper story of the houseopened and the muzzle of a blunderbuss was presented at the assailants.
The women all screamed and ran away.
"'Twas Master Joseph," said the comely dame halting to regain herbreath.
"'Twas Master Joseph," sighed Mrs Page.
"'Twas Master Joseph," moaned Mrs Prance.
"Sure enough," said Mrs Mullins, "I saw his ugly face."
"More frightful than the great gun," said old Dame Toddles.
"I hope the children will get out of the way," said Liza Gray, "for heis sure to fire on them."
In the meantime, while Master Joseph himself was content with hisposition and said not a word, a benignant countenance exhibited itselfat the window and requested in a mild voice to know, "What his goodfriends wanted there?"
"We have come to settle Sam Barlow's tommy book," said their leader.
"Our shop is not open to-day my good friends: the account can standover; far be it from me to press the poor."
"Master Diggs," said a Hell-cat, "canst thou tell us the price of baconto-day?"
"Well, good bacon," said the elder Diggs willing to humour them, "may beeightpence a-pound."
"Thou are wrong Master Diggs," said the Hell-cat, "'tis fourpence andlong credit. Let us see half a dozen good flitches at fourpence, MasterDiggs; and be quick."
There was evidently some controversy in the interior as to the course atthis moment to be pursued. Master Joseph remonstrated against the policyof concession, called conciliation, which his father would fain follow,and was for instant coercion but age and experience carried the day,and in a few minutes some flitches were thrown out of the window to theHell-cats who received the booty with a cheer.
The women returned.
"'Tis the tenpence a-pound flitch," said the comely dame examining theprize with a sparkling glance.
"I have paid as much for very green stuff," said Mrs Mullins.
"And now Master Diggs," said Tummas, "what is the price of the besttea a-pound? We be good customers, and mean to treat our wives andsweethearts here. I think we must order half a chest."
This time there was a greater delay in complying with the gentle hint;but the Hell-cats getting obstreperous, the tea was at length furnishedand divided among the women. This gracious office devolved on the wifeof Tummas who soon found herself assisted by a spontaneous committee ofwhich the comely
dame was the most prominent and active member. Nothingcould be more considerate, good-natured, and officious, than the modeand spirit with which she divided the stores. The flitches were cut upand apportioned in like manner. The scene was as gay and hustling as afair.
"It's as good as a grand tommy day," said the comely dame with aself-complacent smile as she strutted about smiling and dispensingpatronage.
The orders for bacon and tea were followed by a very popular demandfor cheese. The female committee received all the plunder and were veryactive in its distribution. At length a rumour got about that MasterJoseph was entering the names of all present in the tommy books, sothat eventually the score might be satisfied. The mob had now very muchincreased. There was a panic among the women, and indignation among themen: a Hell-cat advanced and announced that unless the tommy books wereall given up to be burnt, they would pull down the house. There was noreply: some of the Hell-cats advanced; the women cheered; a crowbar fellupon the door; Master Joseph fired, wounded a woman and killed a child.
There rose one of those universal shrieks of wild passion which announcethat men have discarded all the trammels of civilization, and found intheir licentious rage new and unforseen sources of power and vengeance.Where it came from, how it was obtained, who prompted the thought, whofirst accomplished it, were alike impossible to trace; but as it werein a moment, a number of trusses of straw were piled up before thehouse and set on fire, the gates of the timber-yard were forced, and aquantity of scantlings and battens soon fed the flame. Everything indeedthat could stimulate the fire was employed; and every one was occupiedin the service. They ran to the water side and plundered the barges, andthrew the huge blocks of coal upon the enormous bonfire. Men, women, andchildren were alike at work with the eagerness and energy of fiends. Theroof of the house caught fire: the dwelling burned rapidly; you couldsee the flames like the tongues of wild beasts, licking the bare andvanishing walls; a single being was observed amid the fiery havoc,shrieking and desperate he clung convulsively to a huge account book, Itwas Master Joseph. His father had made his escape from the back of thepremises and had counselled his son instantly to follow him, but MasterJoseph wished to rescue the ledger as well as their lives, and the delayruined him.
"He has got the tommy book," cried Liza Gray.
The glare of the clear flame fell for a moment upon his countenance ofagony; the mob gave an infernal cheer; then some part of the buildingfalling in, there rose a vast cloud of smoke and rubbish, and he wasseen no more.
Book 6 Chapter 8
Sybil, Or, The Two Nations Page 65
