Through The Fray: A Tale Of The Luddite Riots

by G. A. Henty

  " Then you didn't blow up any of 'em, Maister Ned," Abijah said doubtfully.

  " Not a man jack, Abijali. You see I could not very well have blown them up without going up myself too, so I thought it better to put it off for another time."

  " They are very wicked bad men," Lucy said gravely.

  " Not so very wicked and bad, Lucy. You see they are almost starving, and they consider that the new machines have taken the bread out of their mouths, which is true enough. Now you know when people are starving, and have not bread for their wives and children, they are apt to get desperate. If I were to see you starving, and thought that somebody or something was keeping the bread out of your mouth, I daresay I should do something desperate."

  " But it would be wrong all the same," Lucy said doubt-fully.

  "Yes, my dear, but it would be natural; and when human nature pulls one way, and what is right pulls the other, the human nature generally gets the best of it."

  Lucy did not exactly understand, but she shook her head gravely in general dissent to Ned's view.

  "Why did you not tell us when you came home to breakfast yesterday?" Charlie asked.

  " Because I thought you were sure to hear sooner or later. I saw all the hands in the mill had got to know about it somehow or other, and I was sure it would soon get over the place; and I would rather that I could say, if anyone asked me, that I had not talked about it to anyone, and was in no way responsible for the absurd stories which had got about. I have been talked about

  enough in Marsden, goodness knows, and it is disgusting that just as I should think they must be getting tired of the subject here is something fresh for them to begin upon again."

  As they were at tea the servant brought in a note which had just been left at the door. It was from Mr. Thompson, saying that in consequence of the rumours which were current in the town he should be glad to learn from Ned whether there was any foundation for them, and would therefore be obliged if he would call at eight o'clock that evening. His colleague Mr. Simmonds would be present.

  Ned gave an exclamation of disgust as he threw down the note.

  "Is there any answer, sir?" the servant asked. "The boy said he was to wait."

  " Tell him to say to Mr. Thompson that I will be there at eight o'clock ; but that—no, that will do. It wouldn't be civil," he said to Charlie as the door closed behind the servant, "to say that I wish to goodness he would let my affairs alone and look to his own."

  When Ned reached the magistrates at the appointed hour he found that the inquiry was of a formal character. Besides the two justices Major Browne, who commanded the troops at Marsden, was present; and the justices' clerk was there to take notes.

  Mr. Simmonds greeted Ned kindly, Mr. Thompson stiffly. He was one of those who had from the first been absolutely convinced that the lad had killed his stepfather.

  The officer, who was of course acquainted with the story, examined Ned with a close scrutiny.

  " Will you take a seat, Ned?" Mr. Simmonds, who was the senior magistrate, said. "We have asked you here to explain to us the meaning of certain rumours which are current in the town of an attack upon your mill."

  " I will answer any questions that you may ask," Ned said quietly, seating himself, while the magistrates' clerk dipped his pen in the ink and prepared to take notes of his statement.

  "Is it the case that the Luddites made an attack upon your mill the night before last?"

  " It is true, sir."

  " Will you please state the exact circumstances."

  " There is not much to tell," Ned said quietly. " I have for some time been expecting an attack, having received many threatening letters. I have, therefore, made a habit of sleeping in the mill, and a month ago I got in twelve barrels of powder from Huddersfield. Before going to bed of a night I always pile these in the middle of the room where the looms are, which is the first as you enter. I have bells attached to the shutters and doors to give me notice of any attempt to enter. The night before last I was awoke by hearing one of them ring, and looking out of the window made out a crowd of two or three hundred men outside. They began to batter the door, so, taking a brace of pistols which I keep in readiness by my bed, I went down and took my place by the powder. When they broke down the door and entered I just told them that if they came any farther I should fire my pistol into one of the barrels, the head of which I had knocked out; and, as I suppose they saw that I meant to do it, they went off. That is all I have to tell, so far as I know."

  The clerk's pen ran swiftly over the paper as Ned quietly made his statement. Then there was a silence for a minute or two.

  "And did you really mean to carry out your threat, Mr. Sankey?"

  " Certainly," Ned said.

  " But you would, of course, have been killed yourself."

  " Naturally," Ned said drily; " but that would have been of no great consequence to me or anyone else. As the country was lately about to take my life at its own expense it would not greatly disapprove of my doing so at my own, especially as the lesson to the Luddites would have been so wholesale a one that the services of the troops in this part of the country might have been dispensed with for some time."

  "Did you recognize any of the men concerned?"

  " I am glad to say I did not," Ned replied. " Some of them were masked. The others were, so far as I could see among such a crowd of faces in a not very bright light, all strangers to me."

  " And you would not recognize any of them again were you to see them?"

  " I should not," Ned replied. " None of them stood out prominently among the others."

  " You speak, Mr. Sankey," Mr. Thompson said, " as if

  your sympathies were rather on the side of these men, who would have burned your mill, and probably have murdered you, than against them."

  " I do not sympathize with the measures the men are taking to obtain redress for what they regard as a grievance; but I do sympathize very deeply with the amount of suffering which they are undergoing from the introduction of machinery and the high prices of provisions; and I am not surprised that, desperate as they are, and ignorant as they are, they should be led astray by bad advice. Is there any other question that you wish to ask me?"

  " Nothing at present, I think," Mr. Simmonds said after consulting his colleague by a look. " We shall, of course, forward a report of the affair to the proper authorities, and I may say that although you appear to take it in a very quiet and matter-of-fact way, you have evidently behaved with very great courage and coolness, and in a manner most creditable to yourself. I think, however, that you ought immediately to have made a report to us of the circumstances, in order that we might at once have determined what steps should be taken for the pursuit and apprehension of the rioters."

  Ned made no reply, but rising, bowed slightly to the three gentlemen and walked quietly from the room.

  "A singular young fellow!" Major Browne remarked as the door closed behind him. " I don't quite know what to make of him, but I don't think he could have committed that murder. It was a cowardly business, and although I believe he might have a hand in any desperate

  affair, as indeed this story he has just told us shows, I would lay my life he would not do a cowardly one."

  "I agree with you," Mr. Simmonds said, "though I own that I have never been quite able to rid myself of a vague suspicion that he was guilty."

  " And I believe he is so still," Mr. Thompson said. " To me there is something almost devilish about that lad's manner."

  " His manner was pleasant enough," Mr. Simmonds said warmly, " before that affair of Mulready. He was as nice a lad as you would wish to see till his mother was fool enough to get engaged to that man, who, by the way, I never liked. No wonder his manner is queer now; so would yours be, or mine, if we were tried for murder and, though acquitted, knew there was still a general impression of our guilt."

  " Yes, by Jove," the officer said, " I should be inclined to shoot myself. You are wrong, Mr. Thompson, take my
word for it. That young fellow never committed a cowardly murder. I think you told me, Mr. Simmonds, that he had intended to go into the army had it not been for this affair? Well, his majesty has lost a good officer, for that is just the sort of fellow who would lead a forlorn hope though he knew the breach was mined in a dozen places. It is a pity, a terrible pity!"

  CHAPTER XVIII.

  NED IS ATTACKED.

  S Ned had foreseen and resented, the affair at the mill again made him the chief topic of talk in the neighbourhood, and the question of his guilt or innocence of the murder of his stepfather was again debated with as much earnestness as it had been when the murder was first committed. There was this difference, however, that whereas before he had found but few defenders, for the impression that he was guilty was almost universal, there were now many who took the other view.

  The one side argued that a lad who was ready to blow himself and two or three hundred men into the air was so desperate a character that he would not have been likely to hesitate a moment in taking the life of a man whom he hated, and who had certainly ill-treated him. The other side insisted that one with so much cool courage would not have committed a murder in so cowardly a way as by tying a rope across the road which his enemy had to traverse. One party characterized his conduct at the mill as that of the captain of a pirate ship, the other likened it to any of the great deeds of devotion told in history—the death of Leonidas and his three hundred, or the devotion of Mutius Scsevola.

  Had Ned chosen now he might have gathered round himself a strong party of warm adherents, for there were many who, had they had the least encouragement, would have been glad to shake him by the hand and to show their partisanship openly and warmly; but Ned did not choose. The doctor and Mr. Porson strongly urged upon him that he should show some sort of willingness to meet the advances which many were anxious to make.

  " These people are all willing to admit that they have been wrong, Ned, and really anxious to atone as far as they can for their mistake in assuming that you were guilty. Now is your time, my boy; what they believe to-day others will believe to-morrow; it is the first step towards living it down. I always said it would come, but I hardly ventured to hope that it would come so soon."

  "I can't do it, Mr. Porson; I would if I could, if only for the sake of the others; but I can't talk, and smile, and look pleasant. When a man knows that his mother lying at home thinks that he is a murderer how is he to go about like other people?"

  " But I have told you over and over again, Ned, that your mother is hardly responsible for her actions. She has never been a very reasonable being, and is less so than ever at present. Make an effort, my boy, and mix with others. Show yourself at the cricket-match next week.

  You know the boys are all your firm champions, and I warrant that half the people there will flock round you and make much of you if you will but give them the chance."

  But Ned could not, and did not, but went on his way as before, living as if Marsden had no existence for him, intent upon his work at the mill, and unbending only when at home with his brother and sister.

  His new friend, Cartwright, was, of course, one of the first to congratulate him on the escape the mill had had of destruction.

  " I was wondering what you would do if they came," he said, "and was inclined to think you were a fool for not following my example and having some of your hands to sleep at the mill. Your plan was best, I am ready to allow; that is to say, it was best for anyone who was ready to carry out his threat if driven to it. I shouldn't be, I tell you fairly. If the mill is attacked I shall fight and shall take my chance of being shot, but I could not blow myself up in cold blood."

  " I don't suppose I could have done so either in the old times," Ned said with a faint smile. " My blood used to be hot enough, a good deal too hot, but I don't think anything could get it up to boiling point now, so you see if this thing had to be done at all it must have been in cold blood."

  "By the way, Sankey, I wish you would come over one day next week and dine with me; there will be no one else there except my daughter."

  Ned hastily muttered an excuse.

  " Oh, that is all nonsense!" Mr. Cartwright said good-humouredly; "you are not afraid of me, and you needn't be afraid of my daughter. She is only a child of fifteen, and of course takes you at my estimate, and is disposed to regard you as a remarkable mixture of the martyr and the hero, and to admire you accordingly. Pooh, pooh, lad! you can't be living like a hermit all your life; and at any-rate if you make up your mind to have but a few friends you must be all the closer and more intimate with them. I know you dine with Porson and Green, and I am not going to let you keep me at arm's-length; you must come, or else I shall be seriously offended."

  So Ned had no resource left him, and had to consent to dine at Liversedge. Once there he often repeated the visit. With the kind and hearty manufacturer he was perfectly at home, and although at first he was uncomfortable with his daughter he gradually became at his ease with her, especially after she had driven over with her father to make friends with Lucy, and, again, a short time afterwards, to carry her away for a week's visit at Livers-edge. For this Ned was really grateful. Lucy's life had been a very dull one. She had no friends of her own age in Marsden, for naturally at the time of Mr. Mulready's death all intimacy with the few acquaintances they had in the place had been broken off, for few cared that their children should associate with a family among whom such a terrible tragedy had taken place.

  Charlie was better off, for he had his friends at school, and the boys at Porson's believed in Ned's innocence as a point of honour. In the first place, it would have been something like a reflection upon the whole school to admit the possibility of its first boy being a murderer; in the second, Ned had been generally popular among them, he was their best cricketer, the life and soul of all their games, never bullying himself and putting down all bullying among others with a strong hand. Their championship showed itself in the shape of friendship for Charlie; and at the midsummer following Mr. Mul-ready's death he had received invitations from many of them to stay with them during the holidays, and had indeed spent that time on a series of short visits among them.

  He himself would, had he had his choice, have remained at home with Ned, for he knew how lonely his brother's life was, and that his only pleasure consisted in the quiet evenings; but Ned would not hear of it.

  " You must go, Charlie, both for your sake and my own. The change will do you good; and if you were to stop at home and refuse to go out people would say that you were ashamed to be seen, and that you were crushed down with the weight of my guilt. You have got to keep up the honour of the family now, Charlie; I have proved a failure."

  It was September now, and six months had elapsed since the death of Mr. Mulready. The getting in of the harvest had made no difference in the price of food, the general distress was as great as ever, and the people shook their heads and said that there would be bad doings when the winter with its long; nights was at hand.

  The mill was flourishing under its new management. The goods turned out by the new machinery were o£ excellent quality and finish, and Ned had more orders on hand than he could execute. The profits were large, the hands well paid and contented. Ned had begged Dr. Green and the other trustee of his mother's property to allow him to devote a considerable part of the profits to assist, during the hard time of winter, the numerous hands in Varley and other villages round Marsden who were out of employment; but the trustees said they were unable to permit this. Mrs. Mulready absolutely refused to hear anything about the mill or to discuss any questions connected with money, therefore they had no resource but to allow the profits, after deducting all expenses of living, to accumulate until, at anyrate, Lucy, the youngest of the children, came of age.

  Ned, however, was not to be easily thwarted, and he quietly reverted to the old method of giving out a large quantity of work to the men to be performed by the hand-looms in their own cottages, while still keeping his ne
w machinery fully employed. There was, indeed, a clear loss upon every yard of cloth so made, as it had, of course, to be sold at the lower prices which machinery had brought about; still the profits from the mill itself were large enough to bear the drain, and means of support would be given to a large number of families throughout the winter. Ned told Dr. Green what he had done.

  " You see, doctor," he said, " this is altogether beyond your province. You and Mr. Lovejoy appointed me, as the senior representative of the family, to manage the mill. Of course I can manage it in my own way, and as long as the profits are sufficient to keep us in the position we have hitherto occupied I don't see that you have any reason to grumble."

  " You are as obstinate as a mule, Ned," the doctor said smiling; " but I am glad enough to let you have your way so long as it is not clearly my duty to thwart you; and indeed I don't know how those poor people at Varley and at some of the other villages would get through the winter without some such help."

  " I am very glad I hit upon the plan. I got Luke Marner to draw up a list of all the men who had families depending upon them; but indeed I find that I have been able to set pretty nearly all the looms in the neighbourhood at work, and of course that will give employment to the spinners and croppers. I have made a close calculation, and find that with the profit the mill is making I shall just be able to clear our household expenses this winter, after selling at a loss all the cloth that can be made in the looms round."

  " At anyrate, Ned," the doctor said, " your plan will be a relief to me in one way. Hitherto I have never gone to bed at night without an expectation of being awakened with the news that you have been shot on your way out to the mill at night. The fellows you frightened away last month must have a strong grudge against you in addition to their enmity against you as an employer. You will be safe enough in future, and can leave the mill to take care of itself at night if you like. You will have the blessings of all the poor fellows in the neighbourhood, and may henceforth go where you will by night or day without the slightest risk of danger."