Through The Fray: A Tale Of The Luddite Riots

by G. A. Henty

  Ned had recovered now from his fit of passion, and looked amused rather than concerned as the schoolmaster gave his evidence as to the fray in the school-room.

  " I have a few questions to ask you, Mr. Hathorn," Mr. Wakefield, Ned's lawyer, said. " Had you any reason for expecting any outbreak of this kind among your boys?"

  " None whatever," Mr. Hathorn said.

  " You use the cane pretty freely, I believe, sir."

  " I use it when it is necessary," Mr. Hathorn replied.

  " Ah! and how often do you consider it necessary?"

  " That must depend upon circumstances."

  "You have about thirty boys, I think?"

  " About thirty"

  "And you consider it necessary that at least fifteen out of that thirty should be caned every day. You must have got a very bad lot of boys, Mr. Hathorn?"

  " Not so many as that," the schoolmaster said, flushing.

  " I shall be prepared to prove to your worships," the lawyer said, " that for the last six months the average of boys severely caned by this man has exceeded sixteen a day, putting aside such minor matters as one, two, or three vicious cuts with the cane given at random. It fortunately happened, as I find from my young friend in the dock, that one of the boys has, from motives of curiosity, kept an account for the last six months of the number of boys thrashed every day. I have sent round for him, and he is at present in court."

  Mr. Hathorn turned pale, and he began to think that it would have been wiser for him to have followed Ned's advice, and not to have brought the matter into court.

  " Your worships," the lawyer said, " you have been boys, as I have, and you can form your own ideas as to the wretchedness that must prevail among a body of lads of whom more than half are eaned daily. This, your worships, is a state of tyranny which might well drive any boys to desperation. But I have not done with Mr. Hathorn yet.

  "During the ten days previous to this affair things were even more unpleasant than usual in your establishment, were they not, sir? I understand that the whole of the boys were deprived of all play whatever, and that every minute was occupied by extra tasks, and moreover the prospect was held out to them that this sort of thing would continue for months."

  There had already been several demonstrations of feeling in court, but at this statement by the lawyer there was a general hiss. The schoolmaster hesitated before replying.

  " Now, Mr. Hathorn," the lawyer said briskly, " we want neither hesitation nor equivocation. We may as well have it from you, because if you don't like telling the truth I can put the thirty miserable lads under your charge into the box one after the other."

  " They have had extra tasks to do during their playtime," Mr. Hathorn said, "because they refused to reveal which among them brutally murdered my cat."

  "And how do you know they murdered your cat?"

  " I am sure they did," the schoolmaster said shortly.

  " Oh! you are sure they did! And why are you so sure? Had they any grudge against your cat?"

  " They pretended they had a grudge."

  " What for, Mr. Hathorn?"

  " They used to accuse her of upsetting the ink-bottles when they did it themselves."

  "You did not believe their statements, I .suppose?"

  " Not at all."

  "You caned them just the same as if they had done it themselves. At least I am told so."

  " Of course I caned them, especially as I knew that they were telling a lie."

  " But if it was a lie, Mr. Hathorn, if this cat did not upset their ink, why on earth should these boys have a grudge against her and murder her?"

  The schoolmaster was silent.

  " Now I want an answer, sir. You are punishing thirty boys in addition to the sixteen daily canings divided among them; you have cut off all their play-time, and kept them at work from the time they rise to the time they go to bed. As you see, according to your own statement, they could have had no grudge against the cat, how are you sure they murdered her?"

  " I am quite sure," Mr. Hathorn said doggedly. " Boys have always a spite against cats."

  " Now, your honours, you hear this," Mr. Wakefield said. " Now I am about to place in the witness-box a very respectable woman, one Jane Tytler, who is cook to our esteemed fellow-townsman Mr. Samuel Hawkins, whose residence is, as you know, not far from this school. She will tell you that, having for some time been plagued by a thieving cat which was in the habit of getting into her larder and carrying off portions of food, she, finding it one day there in the act of stealing a half-chicken, fell upon it with a broom-stick and killed it, or as she thought killed it, and I imagine most cooks would have acted the same under the circumstances.

  " She thought no more about it until she heard the reports in the town about this business at the school, and then she told her master. The dates have been compared, and it is found that she battered this cat on the evening before the Hathorn cat was found dead in the yard. Furthermore, the cat she battered was a white cat with a black spot on one side, and this is the exact description of the Hathorn cat; therefore, your honours, you will see that the assumption, or pretence, or excuse, call it what you will, by which this man justifies his tyrannical treatment of these unfortunate boys has no base or foundation whatever. You can go now, Mr. Hathorn; I have nothing further to say to you."

  A loud hiss rose again from the crowded court as the schoolmaster stepped down from the witness-box, and Jane Tytler took his place. After giving her evidence she was succeeded by Dick Tompkins in much trepidation. Dick was a most unwilling witness, but he produced the note-book in which he had daily jotted down the number of boys caned, and swore to the general accuracy of the figures.

  Mr. Wakefield then asked the magistrates if they would like to hear any further witnesses as to the state of things in the school-room. They said that what they had heard was quite sufficient. He then addressed them on the merits of the case, pointing out that although in this case one of the parties was a master and the other a pupil this in no way removed it in the eye of the law from the category of other assaults. " In this case," he

  said, "your worships, the affair has arisen out of a long course of tyranny and provocation on the part of one of the parties, and you will observe that this is the party who first commits the assault, while my client was acting solely in self-defence.

  " It is he who ought to stand in the witness-box, and the complainant in the dock, for he is at once the aggressor and the assailant. The law admits any man who is assaulted to defend himself, and there is, so far as I am aware, no enactment whatever to be found in the statute-book placing boys in a different category to grown-up persons. When your worships have discharged my client, as I have no doubt you will do at once, I shall advise him to apply for a summons for assault against this man Hathorn."

  The magistrates consulted together for some time; then the squire, who was the senior, said:

  " We are of opinion that Master Sankey, by aiding this rebellion against his master, has done wrongly, and that he erred grievously in discharging a heavy missile at his master; at the same time we think that the provocation that he received by the tyranny which has been proved to have been exercised by Mr. Hathorn towards the boys under his charge, and especially by their unjust punishment for an offence which the complainant conceived without sufficient warrant, or indeed without any warrant at all, that they had committed, to a great extent justifies and excuses the conduct of Master Sankey. Therefore, with a reprimand as to his behaviour, and a caution as to

  the consequences which might have arisen from his allowing his temper to go beyond bounds, we discharge him.

  " As to you, sir," he said to the schoolmaster, " we wish to express our opinion that your conduct has been cruel and tyrannical in the extreme, and we pity the unfortunate boys who are under the care of a man who treats them with such cruel harshness as you are proved to have done."

  The magistrates now rose, and the court broke up. Many of those present crowded r
ound Ned and shook his hand, congratulating him on the issue; but at a sign from his father the boy drew himself away from them, and joining Captain Sankey, walked home with him.

  " The matter has ended better than I expected, Ned," he said gravely; " but pray, my boy, do not let yourself think that there is any reason for triumph. You have been gravely reprimanded, and had the missile you used struck the schoolmaster on the head, you would now be in prison awaiting your trial for a far graver offence, and that before judges who would not make the allowances for you that the magistrates here have done.

  " Beware of your temper, Ned, for unless you overcome it, be assured that sooner or later it may lead to terrible consequences." Ned, who had in fact been inclined to feel triumphant over his success, was sobered by his father's grave words and manner; and resolved that he would try hard to conquer his fault; but evil habits are hard to overcome, and the full force of his father's words was still to come home to him.

  He did not, of course, return to Mr. Hathorn's, and indeed the disclosures of the master's severity made at the examination before the magistrates obtained such publicity that several of his pupils were removed at once, and notices were given that so many more would not return after the next holidays that no one was surprised to hear that the schoolmaster had arranged with a successor in the school, and that he himself was about to go to America.

  The result was that after the holidays his successor took his place, and many of the fathers who had intended to remove their sons decided to give the new-comer a trial. The school opened with nearly the original number of pupils. Ned was one of those who went back. Captain Sankey had called on the new master, and had told him frankly the circumstances of the fracas between Ned and Mr. Hathorn.

  " I will try your son at any rate, Mr Sankey," the master said. " I have a strong opinion that boys can be managed without such use of the cane as is generally adopted; that, in my opinion, should be the last resort. Boys are like other people, and will do more for kindness than for blows. By what you tell me, the circumstances of your son's bringing up in India among native servants, have encouraged the growth of a passionate temper, but I trust that we may be able to overcome that; at any rate I will give him a trial." And so it was settled that Ned should return to Porson's, for so the establishment was henceforth to be known.

  CHAPTER V.

  THE NEW MASTER.

  T was with much excitement and interest that the boys gathered in their places for the first time under the new master. The boarders had not seen him upon their arrival on the previous evening, but had been received by an old housekeeper, who told them Mr. Porson would not return until the coach came in from York that night.

  All eyes were turned to the door as the master entered. The first impression was that he was a younger man than they had expected. Mr. Hathorn had been some five-and-forty years old; the new-comer was not over thirty. He was a tall loosely made man, with somewhat stooping shoulders; he had heavy eyebrows, gray eyes, and a firm mouth. He did not look round as he walked straight to his desk; then he turned, and his eyes travelled quietly and steadily round the room as if scanning each of the faces directed towards him.

  " Now, boys," he said in a quiet voice, " a few words before we begin. I am here to teach, and you are here to

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  learn. As your master I expect prompt obedience. I shall look to see each of you do your best to acquire the knowledge which your parents have sent you here to obtain. Above all I shall expect that every boy here will be straightforward, honourable, and truthful. I shall not expect to find that all are capable of making equal progress; there are clever boys and stupid boys, just as there are clever men and stupid men, and it would be unjust to expect that one can keep up to the other; but I do look to each doing his best according to his ability. On my part I shall do my best to advance you in your studies, to correct your faults, and to make useful men of you.

  " One word as to punishments. I do not believe that knowledge is to be thrashed into boys, or that fear is the best teacher. I shall expect you to learn, partly because you feel that as your parents have paid for you to learn it is your duty to learn, partly because you wish to please me. I hope that the cane will seldom be used in this school. It will be used if any boy tells me a lie, if any boy does anything which is mean and dishonourable, if any boy is obstinately idle, and when it is used it will be used to a purpose, but I trust that the occasion for it will be rare.

  " I shall treat you as friends whom it is my duty to instruct. You will treat me, I hope, as a friend whose duty it is to instruct you, and who has a warm interest in your welfare; if we really bear these relations to each other there should be seldom any occasion for punishment. And now as a beginning to-day, boys, let each come up to my

  desk, one at a time, with his books. I shall examine you separately, and see what each knows and is capable of doing. I see by the report here that there are six boys in the first class. As these will occupy me all the morning the rest can go into the playground. The second class will be taken this afternoon."

  The boys had listened with astonished silence to this address, and so completely taken aback were they that all save those ordered to remain rose from their seats and went out in a quiet and orderly way, very different from the wild rush which generally terminated school-time.

  Ned being in the second class was one of those who went out. Instead of scattering into groups, the boys gathered in a body outside.

  " What do you think of that, Sankey ?" Tompkins said. " It seems almost too good to be true. Only fancy, no more thrashing except for lying and things of that sort, and treating us like friends! and he talked as if he meant it too."

  "That he did," Ned said gravely; "and I tell you, fellows, we shall have to work now, and no mistake. A fellow who will not work for such a man as that deserves to be skinned."

  " I expect," said James Mathers, who was one of the biggest boys in the school though still in the third class, "that it's all gammon, just to give himself a good name, and to do away with the bad repute the school has got into for Hathorn's flogging. You will see how long it will last! I ain't going to swallow all that soft soap."

  Necl, who had been much touched at the master's address, at once fired up:

  "Oh! we all know how clever you are, Mathers—quite a shining genius, one of the sort who can see through a stone wall. If you say it's gammon, of course it must be so."

  There was a laugh among the boys.

  "I will punch your head if you don't shut up, Sankey," Mather said angrily; "there's no ink-bottle for you to shy here."

  Ned turned very white, but he checked himself with an effort.

  " I don't want to fight to-day—it's the first day of the half-year, and after such a speech as we've heard I don't want to have a row on this first morning. But you had better look out; another time you won't find me so patient. Punch my head, indeed! Why, you daren't try it."

  But Mathers would have tried it, for he had for the last year been regarded as the cock of the school. However, several of the boys interfered.

  "Sankey is right, Mathers; it would be a beastly shame to be fighting this morning. After what Porson said there oughtn't to be any rows to-day. We shall soon see whether he means it."

  Mathers suffered himself to be dissuaded from carrying his threat into execution, the rather that in his heart of hearts he was not assured that the course would have been a wise one. Ned had never fought in the school, but Tompkins' account of his fight on the moor with Bill

  Swinton, and the courage he had shown in taking upon himself the office of spokesman in the rebellion against Hathorn, had given him a very high reputation among the boys; and in spite of Mather's greater age and weight there were many who thought that Ned Sankey would make a tough fight of it with the cock of the school.

  So the gathering broke up and the boys set to at their games, which were played with a heartiness and zest all the greater that none of them were in pain from recent
punishments, and that they could look forward to the afternoon without fear and trembling.

  When at twelve o'clock the boys of the first class came out from school the others crowded round to hear the result of the morning's lessons. They looked bright and pleased.

  " I think he is going to turn out a brick," Ripon, the head of the first class, said. " Of course one can't tell yet. He was very quiet with us and had a regular examination of each of us. I don't think he was at all satisfied, though we all did our best, but there was no shouting or scolding. We are to go in again this afternoon with the rest. He says there's something which he forgot to mention to us this morning."

  "More speeches!" Mathers grumbled. "I hate all this jaw."

  "Yes," Ripon said sharply; "a cane is the thing which suits your understanding best. Well, perhaps he will indulge you; obstinate idleness is one of the things he mentioned in the address."

  When afternoon school beajan Mr. Porson again rose.

  " There is one thing I forgot to mention this morning. I understand that you have hitherto passed your playtime entirely in the playground, except on Saturday afternoons, when you have been allowed to go where you like between dinner and tea-time. With the latter regulation I do not intend to interfere, or at any rate I shall not do so so lono- as I see that no bad effects come of it; but I shall do so only with this proviso, I do not think it good for you to be going about the town. I shall therefore put Marsden out of bounds. You will be free to ramble where you like in the country, but any boy who enters the town will be severely punished. I am not yet sufficiently acquainted with the neighbourhood to draw the exact line beyond which you are not to go, but I shall do so as soon as I have ascertained the boundaries of the town.

  " I understand that you look forward to Saturday for making such purchases as you require. Therefore each Saturday four boys, selected by yourselves, one from each class, will be allowed to go into the town to make purchases for the rest, but they are not to he absent more than an hour.