CHAPTER XLIX.
THE MOB'S ARRIVAL AT SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S.--THE ATTEMPT TO GAINADMISSION.
The soldiery had been sent for from their principal station near thechurchyard, and had advanced with some degree of reluctance to quellwhat they considered as nothing better nor worse than a drunken brawl ata public-house, which they really considered they ought not to be calledto interfere with.
When, however, the party reached the spot, and heard what a confusionthere was, and saw in what numbers the rioters were assembling, itbecame evident to them that the case was of a more serious complexionthan they had at first imagined, and consequently they felt that theirprofessional dignity was not so much compromised with their interferencewith the lawless proceedings.
Some of the constabulary of the town were there, and to them thesoldiers promised they would hand what prisoners they took, at the sametime that they made a distinct condition that they were not to betroubled with their custody, nor in any way further annoyed in thebusiness beyond taking care that they did not absolutely escape, afterbeing once secured.
This was all that the civil authorities of the town required, and, infact, they hoped that, after making prisoners of a few of theringleaders of the riotous proceedings, the rest would disperse, andprevent the necessity of capturing them.
Be it known, however, that both military and civil authorities werecompletely ignorant of the dreadful outrage against all common decency,which had been committed within the public-house.
The door was well guarded, and the question now was how the rioters wereto be made to come down stairs, and be captured; and this was likely toremain a question, so long as no means were adopted to make themdescend. So that, after a time, it was agreed that a couple of troopersshould march up stairs with a constable, to enable him to secure any onewho seemed a principal in the riot.
But this only had the effect of driving those who were in thesecond-floor, and saw the approach of the two soldiers, whom theythought were backed by the whole of their comrades, up a narrowstaircase, to a third-floor, rather consisting of lofts than of actualrooms; but still, for the time, it was a refuge; and owing to theextreme narrowness of the approach to it, which consisted of nearly aperpendicular staircase, with any degree of tact or method, it mighthave been admirably defended.
In the hurry and scramble, all the lights were left behind; and when thetwo soldiers and constables entered the room where the corpse had lain,they became, for the first time, aware of what a horrible purpose hadbeen carried out by the infuriated mob.
The sight was one of perfect horror, and hardened to scenes which mightstrike other people as being somewhat of the terrific as these soldiersmight be supposed to be by their very profession, they actually sickenedat the sight which the mutilated corpse presented, and turned aside withhorror.
These feelings soon gave way to anger and animosity against the crowdwho could be guilty of such an atrocious outrage; and, for the firsttime, a strong and interested vengeance against the mob pervaded thebreasts of those who were brought to act against it.
One of the soldiers ran down stairs to the door, and reported the scenewhich was to be seen above. A determination was instantly come to, tocapture as many as possible of those who had been concerned in sodiabolical an outrage, and leaving a guard of five men at the door, theremainder of the party ascended the staircase, determined upon stormingthe last refuge of the rioters, and dragging them to justice.
The report, however, of these proceedings that were taking place at theinn, spread quickly over the whole town; and soon as large a mob of thedisorderly and the idle as the place could at all afford was assembledoutside the inn.
This mob appeared, for a time, inertly to watch the proceedings. Itseemed rather a hazardous thing to interfere with the soldiers, whosecarbines look formidable and troublesome weapons.
With true mob courage, therefore, they left the minority of theircomrades, who were within the house, to their fate; and after awhispered conference from one to the other, they suddenly turned in abody, and began to make for the outskirts of the town.
They then separated, as if by common consent, and straggled out into theopen country by twos and threes, consolidating again into a mass whenthey had got some distance off, and clear of any exertions that could bemade by the soldiery to stay them.
The cry then rose of "Down with Sir Francis Varney--slay him--burn hishouse--death to all vampyres!" and, at a rapid pace, they proceeded inthe direction of his mansion.
We will leave this mob, however, for the present, and turn our attentionto those who are at the inn, and are certainly in a position of somejeopardy. Their numbers were not great, and they were unarmed;certainly, their best chance would have been to have surrendered atdiscretion; but that was a measure which, if the sober ones had feltinclined to, those who were infuriated and half maddened with drinkwould not have acceded to on any account.
A furious resistance was, therefore, fairly to be expected; and whatmeans the soldiery were likely to use for the purpose of storming thislast retreat was a matter of rather anxious conjecture.
In the case of a regular enemy, there would not, perhaps, have been muchdifficulty; but here the capture of certain persons, and not theirdestruction, was the object; and how that was to be accomplished by fairmeans, certainly was a question which nobody felt very competent tosolve.
Determination, however, will do wonders; and although the riotersnumbered over forty, notwithstanding all their desertions, and not aboveseventeen or eighteen soldiers marched into the inn, we shall perceivethat they succeeded in accomplishing their object without anymanoeuvring at all.
The space in which the rioters were confined was low, narrow, andinconvenient, as well as dark, for the lights on the staircase cast upthat height but very insufficient rays.
Weapons of defence they found but very few, and yet there were somewhich, to do them but common credit, they used as effectually aspossible.
These attics, or lofts, were used as lumber-rooms, and had been so foryears, so that there was a collection of old boxes, broken pieces offurniture, and other matters, which will, in defiance of everything andeverybody, collect in a house.
These were formidable means of defence, if not of offence, down a verynarrow staircase, had they been used with judgment.
Some of the rioters, who were only just drunk enough to be fool-hardy,collected a few of these articles at the top of the staircase, and sworethey would smash anybody who should attempt to come up to them, a threateasier uttered than executed.
And besides, after all, if their position had been ever so impregnable,they must come down eventually, or be starved out.
But the soldiers were not at liberty to adopt so slow a process ofovercoming their enemy, and up the second-floor staircase they went,with a determination of making short work of the business.
They paused a moment, by word of command, on the landing, and then,after this slight pause, the word was given to advance.
Now when men will advance, in spite of anything and everything, it is noeasy matter to stop them, and he who was foremost among the militarywould as soon thought of hesitating to ascend the narrow staircasebefore him, when ordered so to do, as paying the national debt. On hewent, and down came a great chest, which, falling against his feet,knocked him down as he attempted to scramble over it.
"Fire," said the officer; and it appeared that he had made somearrangements as to how the order was to be obeyed, for the second manfired his carbine, and then scrambled over his prostrate comrade; afterwhich he stooped, and the third fired his carbine likewise, and thenhurried forward in the same manner.
At the first sound of the fire arms the rioters were taken completely bysurprise; they had not had the least notion of affairs getting to such alength. The smell of the powder, the loud report, and the sensation ofpositive danger that accompanied these phenomena, alarmed them mostterrifically; so that, in point of fact, with the exception of the emptychest that was thrown d
own in the way of the first soldier, no furtheridea of defence seemed in any way to find a place in the hearts of thebesieged.
They scrambled one over the other in their eagerness to get as far aspossible from immediate danger, which, of course, they conceived existedin the most imminent degree the nearest to the door.
Such was the state of terror into which they were thrown, that each oneat the moment believed himself shot, and the soldiers had overcome allthe real difficulties in getting possession of what might thus be calledthe citadel of the inn, before those men who had been so valorous ashort time since recovered from the tremendous fright into which theyhad been thrown.
We need hardly say that the carbines were loaded, but with blankcartridges, for there was neither a disposition nor a necessity fortaking the lives of these misguided people.
If was the suddenness and the steadiness of the attack that had done allthe mischief to their cause; and now, ere they recovered from thesurprise of having their position so completely taken by storm, theywere handed down stairs, one by one, from soldier to soldier, and intothe custody of the civil authorities.
In order to secure the safe keeping of large a body of prisoners, theconstables, who were in a great minority, placed handcuffs upon some ofthe most capable of resistance; so what with those who were thussecured, and those who were terrified into submission, there was not aman of all the lot who had taken refuge in the attics of thepublic-house but was a prisoner.
At the sound of fire-arms, the women who were outside the inn had, ofcourse, raised a most prodigious clamour.
They believed directly that every bullet must have done some mostserious mischief to the townspeople, and it was only upon one of thesoldiers, a non-commissioned officer, who was below, assuring them ofthe innoxious nature of the proceeding which restored anything likeequanimity.
"Silence!" he cried: "what are you howling about? Do you fancy thatwe've nothing better to do than to shoot a parcel of fellows that arenot worth the bullets that would be lodged in their confoundedcarcases?"
"But we heard the gun," said a woman.
"Of course you did; it's the powder that makes the noise, not thebullet. You'll see them all brought out safe wind and limb."
This assurance satisfied the women to a certain extent, and such hadbeen their fear that they should have had to look upon the spectacle ofdeath, or of grievous wounds, that they were comparatively quitesatisfied when they saw husbands, fathers, and brothers, only in thecustody of the town officers.
And very sheepish some of the fellows looked, when they were handed downand handcuffed, and the more especially when they had been routed onlyby a few blank cartridges--that sixpenny worth of powder had defeatedthem.
They were marched off to the town gaol, guarded by the military, who nowprobably fancied that their night's work was over, and that the mostturbulent and troublesome spirits in the town had been secured.
Such, however, was not the case, for no sooner had comparative orderbeen restored, than common observation pointed to a dull red glare inthe southern sky.
In a few more minutes there came in stragglers from the open country,shouting "Fire! fire!" with all their might.
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