68 While Newgate was burning on the previous night, Barnaby and his father, having been passed among the crowd from hand to hand, stood in Smithfield on the outskirts of the mob gazing at the flames like men who had been suddenly roused from sleep. Some moments elapsed before they could distinctly remember where they were or how they got there, or recollected that while they were standing island-listless spectators of the fire, they had tools in their hands which had been hurriedly given them that they might free themselves from their fetters. Barnaby, heavily ironed as he was, if he had obeyed his first impulse or if he had been alone, would have made his way back to the side of Hugh, who to his clouded intellect now shone forth with the new luster of being his preserver and truest friend. But his father's terror of remaining in the streets communicated itself to him when he comprehended the full extent of his fears and impressed him with the same eagerness to fly to a place of safety. In a corner of the market, among the pens for cattle, Barnaby knelt down and, pausing every now and then to pass his hand over his father's face, or look up to him with a smile, knocked off his irons. When he had seen him spring a free man to his feet and had given vent to the transport of delight which the sight awakened, he went to work upon his own, which soon fell rattling down upon the ground and left his limbs unfettered. Guiding away together when this task was accomplished, and passing several groups of men, each gathered round a stooping figure to hide him from those who passed but unable to repress the clanking sound of hammers which told that they too were busy at the same work, the two fugitives made towards Clarkinwell, and passing thanks to Islington as the nearest point of eagerness were quickly in the fields. After wandering about for a long time, they found in a pasture near Finchley a poor shed with walls of mud and roof of grass and brambles built for some cowherd but now deserted. Here they lay down for the rest of the night. They wandered to and fro when it was day, and once Barnaby went off alone to a cluster of little cottages two or three miles away to purchase some bread and milk. But finding no better shelter they returned to the same place and lay down again to wait for night. Heaven alone can tell with what vague hopes of duty and affection, with what strange promptings of nature intelligible to him as to a man of radiant mind in most enlarged capacity, with what dim memories of children he had played with when a child himself who had prattle of their fathers and of loving them and being loved, with how many half remembered dreamy associations of his mother's grief and tears and widowhood, he watched and tended this man. But that a vague and shadowy crowd of such ideas came slowly on him, that they taught him to be sorry when he looked upon his haggard face, that they overflowed his eyes when he stooped to kiss him, that they kept him waking in a tearful gladness, shading him from the sun, fanning him with leaves, soothing him when he started in his sleep, ah, what a troubled sleep it was, and wondering when she would come to join them and be happy is the truth. He sat beside him all that day listening for her footsteps in every breath of air, looking for her shadow on the gently waving grass, twining the hedge flowers for her pleasure when she came, and his when he awoke, and stooping down from time to time to listen to his mutterings and wonder why he was so restless in that quiet place. The sun went down and night came on, and he was still quite tranquil, busied with these thoughts as if there were no other people in the world, and the dull cloud of smoke hanging on the immense city in the distance, had no vices, no crimes, no life or death or cause of disquiet, nothing but clear air. But the hour had now come when he must go alone to find out the blind man, a task that filled him with delight, and bring him to that place, taking a special care that he was not watched or followed on his way back. He listened to the directions he must observe, repeated them again and again, and after twice or thrice returning to surprise his father with a light-hearted laugh, went forth at last upon his errand, leaving grip whom he had carried from the jail in his arms to his care. Fleet of foot and anxious to return, he sped swiftly on towards the city, but could not reach it before the fires began and made the night angry with their dismal luster. When he entered the town, it might be that he was changed by going there without his late companions and on no violent errand, or by the beautiful solitude in which he had passed the day, or by the thoughts that had come upon him, but it seemed peopled by a legion of devils. This flight and pursuit, this cruel burning and destroying, his dreadful cries and stunning noises, were they the good Lord's noble cause? Though almost stupefied by the bewildering scene, still he found the blind man's house.  He waited for a long while but no one came. At last he withdrew, and as he knew by this time that the soldiers were firing and many people must have been killed, he went down into Holborn where he heard the great crowd was, to try if he could find Hugh and persuade him to avoid the danger and return with him. If he had been stunned and shocked before, his horror was increased a thousand-fold when he got into this vortex of the riot, and not being an actor in the terrible spectacle had it all before his eyes. But there in the midst, towering above them all, close before the house they were attacking now, was Hugh on horseback calling to the rest. Sickened by the sights surrounding him on every side and by the heat and roaring crash, he forced his way among the crowd where many recognized him and the shouts pressed back to let him pass, and in time was nearly up with Hugh, who was savagely threatening someone but whom or what he said he could not in the great confusion understand. At that moment the crowd forced their way into the house, and Hugh, it was impossible to see by what means in such a concourse, fell headlong down. Barnaby was beside him when he staggered to his feet. It was well he made him hear his voice, or Hugh with his uplifted axe would have cleft his skull in twain. Barnaby, you! Whose hand was that that struck me down? Not mine. Whose? I say whose, he cried, reeling back and looking wildly round. What are you doing? Where is he? Show me. You are hurt, said Barnaby, as indeed he was in the head, both by the blow he had received and by his horse's hoof. Come away with me. As he spoke he took the horse's bridle in his hand, turned him, and dragged Hugh several paces. This brought them out of the crowd, which was pouring from the street into the vintner's cellars. Where's Dennis? said Hugh, coming to a stop and checking Barnaby with his strong arm. Where has he been all day? What did he mean by leaving me as he did in the jail last night? Tell me, you, do you hear? With the flourish of his dangerous weapon he fell down upon the ground like a log. After a minute, though already frantic with drinking and with the wound in his head, he crawled to a stream of burning spirit which was pouring down the kennel and began to drink at it as if it were a brook of water. Barnaby drew him away and forced him to rise, though he could neither stand nor walk, he involuntarily staggered to his horse, climbed upon his back and clung there. After vainly attempting to divest the animal of his clanking trappings, Barnaby sprung up behind him, snatched the bridle, turned into leather lane which was close at hand, and urged the frightened horse into a heavy trot. He looked back once before he left the street and looked upon a site not easily to be erased even from his remembrance so long as he had life. The vintner's house, with half a dozen others near at hand, was one great glowing blaze. All night no one had a say to quench the flames or stop their progress, but now a body of soldiers were actively engaged in pulling down two old wooden houses which were every moment in danger of taking fire and which could scarcely fail if they were left to burn to extend the conflagration immensely. The tumbling down of nodding walls and heavy blocks of wood, the hooting and the execrations of the crowd, the distant firing of other military detachments, the distracted looks and cries of those whose habitations were in danger, the hurrying to and fro frightened people with their goods, the reflections in every quarter of the sky of deep red soaring flames as though the last day had come and the whole universe were burning. The dust and smoke and drift of fiery particles scorching and kindling all it fell upon, the hot unwholesome vapor, the blight on everything, the stars and moon and very sky obliterated, made up such a psalm of dreariness and ruin that it seemed as if the face of heaven were blotted out, and night in its rest and quiet and softened light never could look upon the earth again. But there was a worse spectacle than this, worse by far than fire and smoke or even the rables unappeasable and maniac rage. The gutters of the street and every crack and fissure in the stones ran with scorching spirit, which, being dammed up by busy hands, overflowed the road and pavement and formed a great pool into which the people dropped down dead by dozens. They lay in heaps all round this beautiful pond, husbands and wives, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, women with children in their arms and babies at their breasts, and drank until they died. While some stooped with their lips to the brink and never raised their heads again, others sprang up from their fiery draft and danced half in a mad triumphant half in the agony of suffocation until they fell and steeped their corpses in the liquor that had killed them.  From the burning cellars where they drank out of hats, pails, buckets, tubs, and shoes, some men were drawn alive but all alight from head to foot, who, in their unendurable anguish and suffering, making for anything that had the look of water, rolled hissing in this hideous lake and splashed up liquid fire which lapped in all it met with as it ran along the surface and neither spared the living nor the dead. On this last night of the great riots, for the last night it was, the wretched victims of a senseless outcry became themselves the dust and ashes of the flames they had kindled and strewed the public streets of London. With all he saw in this last glance fixed indelibly upon his mind, Barnaby hurried from the city which enclosed such horrors and holding down his head that he might not even see the glare of the fires upon the quiet landscape was soon in the still country roads. He stopped at about half a mile from the shed where his father lay, and with some difficulty making hue sensible that he must dismount sunk the horse's furniture in a pool of stagnant water and turned the animal loose. That done he supported his companion as well as he could and led him slowly forward. CHAPTER 69 It was the dead of night and very dark when Barnaby with his stumbling comrade approached the place where he had left his father. But he could see him stealing away into the gloom, distrustful even of him and rapidly retreating. After calling to him twice or thrice that there was nothing to fear but without effect, he suffered hue to sink upon the ground and followed to bring him back. He continued to creep away until Barnaby was close upon him, then turned and said in a terrible, though suppressed voice, Let me go, do not lay hands upon me. You have told her and you and she together have betrayed me. Barnaby looked at him in silence. You have seen your mother. No, cried Barnaby eagerly, not for a long time, longer than I can tell. A whole year, I think. Is she here? His father looked upon him steadfastly for a few moments and then said, drawing nearer to him as he spoke, for seeing his face and hearing his words it was impossible to doubt his truth. What man is that? Hue, hue, only hue. You know him. He will not harm you. Well, you're afraid of hue? Ha, ha, afraid of gruff old noisy hue? What man is he? I ask you.  Well, how stern you are. You make me fear you, though you are my father. Why do you speak to me so? I want, he answered, putting away the hand which his son with a timid desire to propitiate him laid upon his sleeve. I want an answer, and you give me only jeers and questions.  And where is the blind man? I don't know where. His house was close shut. I waited, but no person came. That was no fault of mine.  Aha, you like him now, do you? You like him now. Why does he lie upon the ground? He has had a fall and has been drinking. The fields and trees go round and round and round with him in the ground, heaves under his feet. You know him, you remember, see? The head, by this time, returned to where he lay, and both stooped over him to look into his face. I recollect the man, his father murmured. Why did you bring him here? Because he would have been killed if I had left him over yonder.   I see it does by your face. That's like me. What are you looking at? At nothing, said the murderer softly, as he started back a pace or two, engaged with sunken jaw and staring eyes above his son's head. At nothing. He remained of the same attitude and with the same expression on his face for a minute or more, then glanced slowly round as if he had lost something and went shivering back towards the shed. Shall I bring him in, father? asked Barnaby, who had looked on, wondering. He only answered with a suppressed groan, and lying down upon the ground, wrapped his cloak about his head and shrunk into the darkest corner. Finding that nothing would rouse Hugh now, or make him sensible for a moment, Barnaby dragged him along the grass and laid him on a little heap of refuse hay and straw, which had been his own bed, first having brought some water from a running stream hard by and washed his wound and laid his hands in face. Then he lay down himself between the two to pass the night, and, looking at the stars, fell fast asleep. Awakened early in the morning by the sunshine and the songs of birds and hum of insects, he left them sleeping in the hut and walked into the sweet and pleasant air. But he felt that on his jaded senses, oppressed and burdened with the dreadful scenes of last night and many nights before, all the beauties of opening day which he had so often tasted and in which he had had such deep delight fell heavily. He thought of the blithe mornings when he and the dogs went bounding on together through the woods and fields, and the recollection filled his eyes with tears. He had no consciousness, God, help him, of having done wrong, nor had he any new perception of the merits of the cause in which he had been engaged or those of the men who advocated it. But he was full of cares now and regrets and dismal recollections and wishes, quite unknown to him before, that this or that event had never happened and that the sorrow and suffering of so many people had been spared. And now he began to think how happy they would be, his father, mother, he, and Hugh, if they rambled away together and lived in some lonely place where there were none of these troubles, and that perhaps the blind man, who had talked so wisely about gold and told him of the great secrets he knew, could teach them how to live without being pinched by want. As this occurred to him, he was the more sorry that he had not seen him last night and he was still brooding over this regret when his father came and touched him on the shoulder. Ah! cried Barnaby, starting from his fit of thoughtfulness. Is it only you? Who should it be? I almost thought, he answered, it was the blind man. I must have some talk with him, father, and so must I, for without seeing him I don't know where to fly or what to do, and lingering here is death.  Must I? cried Barnaby, delighted. That's brave, father, that's what I want to do. But you must bring only him and none other, and though you waited his door whole day and night, still you must wait and not come back without him. Don't you fear that? he cried gaily. He shall come, he shall come. Trim off those gugaws, said his father, plucking the scraps of ribbon and the feathers from his hat, and over your own dress wear my cloak. Take heed how you go, and they will be too busy in the streets to notice you. Of your coming back you need take no account, for he'll manage that safely. To be sure, said Barnaby, to be sure he will. A wise man, father, and one who can teach us to be rich. Oh, I know him, I know him. He was speedily dressed and as well disguised as he could be.  The murderer, full of anxious thoughts, looked after him and paced up and down, disquieted by every breath of air that whispered among the boughs, and by every light shadow thrown by the passing clouds upon the daisy ground. He was anxious for his safe return, and yet, though his own life and safety hung upon it, felt a relief while he was gone. In the intense selfishness which constant presence before him of his great crimes and their consequences here and hereafter engendered, every thought of Barnaby as his son was swallowed up and lost. Still his presence was a torture and reproach. In his wild eyes there were terrible images of that guilty night. With his unearthly aspect and his half-formed mind he seemed to the murderer a creature who had sprung into existence from his victim's blood. He could not bear his look, his voice, his touch, and yet he was forced by his own desperate condition and his only hope of cheating the gibbet to have him by his side and to know that he was inseparable from his single chance of escape. He walked to and fro with little rest all day, revolving these things in his mind, and still Hugh lay unconscious in the shed. At length when the sun was setting Barnaby returned, leading the blind man, and talking earnestly to him as they came along together. The murderer advanced to meet them, and bidding his son go on and speak to Hugh, who had just then staggered to his feet, took his place at the blind man's elbow and slowly followed towards the shed. Why did you send him? said Stag. Don't you know it was the way to have him lost as soon as found? Would you have had me come myself? returned the other? Perhaps not. I was before the jail on Tuesday night but missed you in the crowd. I was out last night, too.  Have you seen your good lady? Yes. Do you mean to tell me more or not? I'll tell you all, returned the blind man with a laugh. Excuse me, but I love to see you so impatient. There's energy in it. Does she consent to say the word that may save me? No, returned the blind man emphatically as he turned his face towards him. No, thus it is. She has been at death's door since she lost her darling, has been insensible, and I know not what. I tracked her to a hospital and presented myself with your leave at her bedside. Our talk was not a long one for she was weak and there being people near I was not quite easy, but I told her all that you and I agreed upon and pointed out the young gentleman's position in strong terms. She tried to soften me, but that, of course, as I told her, was lost time. She cried and moaned, you may be sure, all women do. Then, of a sudden, she found her voice and strength and said that heaven would help her and her innocent son, and that to heaven she appealed against us, which she did in really very pretty language, I assure you. I advised her as a friend not to count too much on assistance from any such distant quarter, recommended her to think of it, told her where I lived, said I knew she would send him even for noon next day, and left her either in a faint or shammy. When he had concluded this narration, during which he had made several pauses for the convenience of cracking and eating nuts, of which he seemed to have a pocketful, a blind man pulled a flask from his pocket, took a draft himself and offered it to his companion. You won't, won't you? he said, feeling that he pushed it from him. Well, then the gallant gentleman who's lodging with you will. Hello, bully! Death, said the other, holding him back. Will you tell me what I am to do? Do? Nothing easier. Make a moonlight flitting in two hours' time with the young gentleman. He's quite ready to go. I have been giving him good advice as we came along, and get as far from London as you can. Let me know where you are and leave the rest to me. She must come round. She can't hold out long. And as to the chances of your being retaken in the meanwhile, well, it wasn't one man who got out of Newgate but three hundred. Think of that for your comfort. We must support life. How? How, repeated the blind man, by eating and drinking, and how get meat and drink but by paying for it? Money, he cried, slapping his pocket. Is money the word? Well, the streets have been running money. Devil's sin that the sport's not over yet. For these are jolly times, golden, rare, roaring, scrambling times. Hello, bully! Hello, hello! Drink, bully, drink! Where are you there? Hello! With such vociferations and with the boisterous manner which bespoke his perfect abandonment to the general license and disorder, he groped his way towards the shed where Hugh and Barnaby were sitting on the ground. Put it about, he cried, handing his glass to Hugh. The kennels run with wine and gold, guineas and strong water flow from the very pumps. About with it, don't spare it.  Hugh still took the flask and raised it to his lips. He was in the act of drinking when the front of the shed was suddenly darkened and Dennis stood before them. No offense, no offense said that personage in a conciliatory tone, as Hugh stopped in his draft and eyed him with no pleasant look from head to foot. No offense, brother, Barnaby here too, eh? How are you, Barnaby, and two other gentlemen?  Notwithstanding that he spoke in this very friendly and confident manner, he seemed to have considerable hesitation about entering and remained outside the roof. He was rather better dressed than usual, wearing the same suit of threadbare black, it is true, but having round his neck an unwholesome looking cravat of a yellowish white, and on his hands great leather gloves, such as a gardener might wear in following his trade. His shoes were newly greased and ornamented with a pair of rusty iron buckles. The pack threaded his knees had been renewed, and where he wanted buttons he wore pins. Altogether he had something in the look of a tip staff for a bailiff's follower, desperately faded, but who had a notion of keeping up the appearance of a professional character and making the best of the worst means. You're very snug here, said Mr. Dennis, pulling out a moldy pocket handkerchief, which looked like a decomposed halter and wiping his forehead in a nervous manner. Not snug enough to prevent your finding, as it seems, he answered sulkily. Well, I'll tell you what, brother, said Dennis, with a friendly smile. When you don't want me to know which way you're riding, you must wear another sort of bells on your horse. I know the sound of them you wore last night, and have got quick years for them, that's the truth. Well, but how are you, brother? He had, by this time, approached and now ventured to sit down by him. How am I, answered Hugh? Where were you yesterday? Where did you go when you left me in the jail? Why did you leave me? And what did you mean by rolling your eyes and shaking your fist at me, eh? I shaked my fist. At you, brother, said Dennis, gently checking Hugh's uplifted hand, which looked threatening.  Lord, love you, brother, I meant nothing. You don't understand me by half. I shouldn't wonder now, he added, in the tone of a desponding and an injured man. But you thought, because I wanted them chaps left in the prison, that I was going to desert the banners? You told him with an oath that he had thought so. Well, said Mr. Dennis mournfully, if you ain't enough to make a man mistrust his fellow-creators, I don't know what is. Desert the banners? Me, Ned Dennis, as was so christened by his own father? Is this Axe, your own brother? Yes, it's mine, said Hugh, in the same sullen manner as before.  Put it down. Might have hurt me, said Mr. Dennis, still keeping it at his hand and feeling the edge with an air of abstraction. Might have hurt me, and me exerting myself all the time to the very best advantage. Here's a world, and you're not going to ask me to take the sup out of that air bottle, eh? Hugh passed it towards him. As he raised it to his lips, Barnaby jumped up, and, motioning them to be silent, looked eagerly out. What's the matter, Barnaby, said Dennis, glancing at Hugh and dropping the flask, but still holding the Axe in his hand? Hush, he answered softly. What do I see glittering behind the hedge? What, cried the hangman, raising his voice to its highest pitch, and laying hold of him and Hugh, not soldiers, surely? That moment the shed was filled with armed men, and a body of horse galloping into the field drew up before it. There, said Dennis, who remained untouched among them when they had seized their prisoners. It's them two young ones, gentlemen, that the proclamation puts a price on. This other's an escaped felon. I'm sorry for it, brother, he added in a tone of resignation, addressing himself to Hugh. But you brought it on yourself. You forced me to do it. You wouldn't respect the soundest constitutional principles, you know. You went and violated the very framework of society. I had sooner have given away a trifle in charity than done this. A wood upon my soul. If you'll keep fast holding them, gentlemen, I think I can make a shift at time better than you can. But this operation was postponed for a few moments by a new occurrence. The blind man, whose ears were quicker than most people's sight, had been alarmed before Barnaby by a rustling in the bushes, under cover of which the soldiers had advanced. He retreated instantly, had hidden somewhere for a minute, and probably in his confusion, mistaking the point at which he had emerged, was now seen running across the open meadow. An officer cried directly that he had helped to plunder a house last night. He was loudly called on to surrender. He ran the harder, and in a few seconds would have been out of gunshot. The word was given and the men fired. There was a breathless pause and a profound silence, during which all eyes were fixed upon him. He had been seen to start at the discharge as if the report had frightened him. But he neither stopped nor slackened his pace in the least, and ran on full forty yards further. Then, without one reel or stagger or sign of faintness or quivering of any limb, he dropped. Some of them hurried up to where he lay, the hangman with them. Everything had passed so quickly that the smoke had not yet scattered, but curled slowly off in a little cloud, which seemed like the dead man's spirit moving solemnly away. There were a few drops of blood upon the grass, more when they turned him over. That was all. Look here, look here, said the hangman, stooping one knee beside the body, and gazing up with a disconsolate face at the officer and men. Here's a pretty sight. Stand out of the way, replied the officer. Sergeant, see what he had about him. The man turned his pockets out upon the grass and counted, beside some foreign coins and two rings, five and forty guineas in gold. These were bundled up in a handkerchief and carried away. The body remained there for the present, but six men and the sergeant were left to take it to the nearest public house. Now, then, if you're going, said the sergeant, clapping Dennis on the back and pointing after the officer who was walking towards the shed. To which Mr. Dennis only replied, don't talk to me. And then repeated what he had said before, namely, here's a pretty sight. It's not one that you care for much, I should think, observed the sergeant coolly. Why, who, said Mr. Dennis Rising, should care for it if I don't? Oh, I didn't know you were so tender-hearted, said the sergeant, that's all. Tender-hearted, echoed Dennis, tender-hearted, look at this man. Do you call this constitutional? Do you see him shot through and through instead of being worked off like a Britain? Dammit, if I know which party to side with. You're as bad as the other. What's to become of the country if the military power is to go as superseding the civilians in this way? Where's this poor fellow-creator's rights as a citizen that he didn't have me in his last moments? I was here. I was willing. I was ready. These are nice times, brother, to have the dead crying out against us in this way and sleep comfortably in our beds, art of words. Very nice. Whether he derived any material consolation from binding the prisoners is uncertain. Most probably he did. At all events, his being summoned to that work diverted him for the time from these painful reflections and gave his thoughts a more congenial occupation. There were not all three carried off together, but in two parties. Barnaby and his father, going by one road in the center of a body of foot, and Hugh, fast bound upon a horse and strongly guarded by a troop of cavalry being taken by another. They had no opportunity for the least communication in the short interval which preceded their departure, being kept strictly apart. Hugh only observed that Barnaby walked with a drooping head among his guard and without raising his eyes that he tried to wave his fettered hand when he passed. For himself he buoyed up his courage as he rode along with the assurance that the mob would force his jail wherever it might be and set him at liberty. But when they got into London, and more especially into Fleet Market, lately the stronghold of the rioters where the military were rooting out the last remnant of the crowd, he saw that this hope was gone and felt that he was riding to his death. End of Chapter 69 Chapter 70 of Barnaby-Rudge This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Barnaby-Rudge by Charles Dickens, Chapter 70 Mr. Dennis, having dispatched this piece of business without any personal hurt or inconvenience and having now retired into the tranquil respectability of private life, resolved to solace himself with half an hour or so of female society. With his amiable purpose in his mind, he bent his steps towards the house where Dolly and Miss Herodale were still confined and wither Miss Miggs had also been removed by order of Mr. Simon Tapperton. As he walked along the streets with his leather gloves clasped behind him and his face indicative of cheerful thought and pleasant calculation, Mr. Dennis might have been likened unto a farmer ruminating among his crops and enjoying by anticipation the bountiful gifts of Providence.  The whole town appeared to have been plowed and sown and nurtured by most genial weather and a goodly harvest was at hand. Having taken up arms and resorted to deeds of violence with the great main object of preserving the old Bailey and all its purity and the gallows and all its pristine usefulness and moral grandeur, it would perhaps be going too far to assert that Mr. Dennis had ever distinctly contemplated and foreseen this happy state of things. He rather looked upon it as one of those beautiful dispensations which are inscrutably brought about for the behoof and advantage of good men. He felt, as it were, personally referred to in this prosperous ripening for the gibbet and had never considered himself so much the pet and favorite child of destiny or loved that lady so well or with such a calm and virtuous reliance in all his life. As to being taken up himself for a rioter and punished with the rest, Mr. Dennis dismissed that possibility from his thoughts as an idle chimera, arguing that the line of conduct he had adopted at Newgate and the service he had rendered that day would be more than a set off against any evidence which might identify him as a member of the crowd. That any charge of companionship which might be made against him by those who were themselves in danger would certainly go for naught. And that if any trivial indiscretion on his part should unluckily come out, the uncommon usefulness of his office at present and the great demand for the exercise of its functions would certainly cause it to be winked at and passed over. In a word, he had played his cards throughout with great care, had changed sides at the very nick of time, had delivered up two of the most notorious rioters and a distinguished felon to boot and was quite at his ease. Saving, for there is a reservation and even Mr. Dennis was not perfectly happy, saving for one circumstance, to wit, forcible detention of Dolly and Miss Herodale in a house almost adjoining his own. This was a stumbling block, for if they were discovered and released they could by the testimony they had it in their power to give, place him in a situation of great jeopardy and to set them at liberty, first extorting from them an oath of secrecy and silence was a thing not to be thought of. It was more perhaps with an eye to the danger which lurked in this quarter than from his abstract love of conversation with the sex that the hang men, quickening his steps, now hastened into their society, cursing the amorous natures of Hugh and Mr. Tappertit with great heartiness at every step he took. When he entered the miserable room in which they were confined, Dolly and Miss Herodale withdrew in silence to the remotest corner. But Miss Miggs, who was particularly tender of her reputation, immediately fell up on her knees and began to scream, very loud, crying, What will become of me? Where is my Simmons? Have mercy, good gentleman, o' my sex's weaknesses with other doleful lamentations of that nature, which she delivered with great propriety and decorum. Miss, Miss, whispered Dennis, beckoning to her with his forefinger.  Come here, my lamb, will you?  He says I'm his lamb. Oh, gracious, why wasn't I born old and ugly? Why was I ever made to be the youngest of six, and all of them dead and in their blessed graves, excepting one married sister, were just settled in Golden Lion Court, number twenty-seven, second bell handle on the— Don't I say I am going to hurt you? said Dennis, pointing to a chair. Why, Miss, what's the matter? I don't know what may be the matter, cried Miss Miggs, clasping her hands distractedly. Anything may be the matter. But nothing is, I tell you, said the hangman. First stop that noise and come and sit down here, will you, Chucky? The coaxing tone in which he said these latter words might have failed in its object, if he had not accompanied them with sundry-sharp jerks of his thumb over one shoulder, and with diverse winks and thrustings of his tongue into his cheek, from which signals the damsel gathered that he sought to speak to her apart concerning Miss Herdale and Dolly. Her curiosity, being very powerful and her jealousy by no means inactive, she arose, and with a great deal of shivering and starting back in much muscular action among all the small bones at her throat, gradually approached him. Sit down, said the hangman. Suiting the action to the word, he thrust her rather suddenly and prematurely into a chair and, designing to reassure her by a little harmless chocularity, such as his adapted to please and fascinate the sex, converted his right forefinger into an ideal braddle or gimlet and made as though he would screw the same into her side, whereat Miss Big shrieked again and evened symptoms of faintness. Lovey, my dear, whispered Dennis, drawing his chair close to hers. When was your young man here last day? My young man, good gentleman, answered Miggs in a tone of exquisite distress. Ah, Simmons, you know him, said Dennis. Mine indeed cried Miggs with a burst of bitterness, and as she said it, she glanced towards Dolly. Mine, good gentleman, this was just what Mr. Dennis wanted and expected. Ah, he said, looking so soothingly, not to say amorously on Miggs, that she said, as she afterwards remarked, on pins and needles of the sharpest white chapel kind, not knowing what intentions might be suggesting that expression to his features. I was afraid of that. I saw as much of myself. That's her fault. She will entice him. I wouldn't, cried Miggs, folding her hands and looking upwards with the kind of devout blankness. I wouldn't lay myself out as she does. I wouldn't be as bold as her. I wouldn't seem to say to all male creeders, come and kiss me. And here a shutter quite convulsed her frame. For any earthly crowns this might be offered. Worlds, Miggs added solemnly, should not reduce me. No, not if I was Weeness. Well, but you are Weeness, you know, said Mr. Dennis, confidentially. No, I am not, good gentleman, answered Miggs, shaking her head with an air of self-denial, which seemed to imply that she might be if she chose, but she hoped she knew better. No, I am not, good gentleman, don't charge me with it. Up to this time she had turned round every now and then to where Dolly and Ms. Haerdale had retired and uttered a scream or groan or laid her hand upon her heart and trembled excessively with a view of keeping up appearances and giving them to understand that she conversed with the visitor under protest and on compulsion and had a great personal sacrifice for their common good.  When was Simmons here, I say, quote Dennis in her ear? Not since yesterday morning and then only for a few minutes. Not all day, the day before. You know, he meant all alone to carry off that one, said Dennis, indicating Dolly by the slightest possible jerk of his head and to hand you over to somebody else. Ms. Miggs, who had fallen into a terrible state of grief when the first part of the sentence was spoken, recovered a little at the second and seemed by the sudden check she put upon her tears to intimate that possibly this arrangement might meet her views and that it might perhaps remain an open question. But unfortunately, pursued Dennis, who observed this, somebody else was fond of her too, you see, and even if he wasn't, somebody else just took for a rider and it's all over with him. Ms. Miggs relapsed. Now I want, said Dennis, to clear this house and to see you righted. What if I was to get her off out of the way, eh? Ms. Miggs, brightening again, rejoined with many breaks and pauses from excessive feeling that temptations had been Simmons's bane, that it was not his fault but hers, meaning Dolly's, that men did not see through these dreadful arts as women did and therefore was caged and trapped as Simmons had been, that she had no personal motives to serve far from it. On the contrary, her intentions was good towards all parties. But for as much as she know that Simmons, if united to any designing and artful minks, she would name no names for that was not her dispositions, to any designing and artful minks must be made miserable and unhappy for life, she did incline towards perventions. Such, she added, was her free confessions. But as this was private feelings and might perhaps be looked upon as vengeance, she begged the gentleman would say no more. Whatever he said, wishing to do her duty by all mankind, even by them as had ever been her bitterest enemies, she would not listen to him. With that she stopped her ears and shook her head from side to side to intimate to Mr. Dennis, that though he talked until he had no breath left, she was as deaf as any adder. Lookie here, my sugar stick, said Mr. Dennis, if you have used the same as mine and you'll only be quiet and slip away at the right time, I can have the house clear tomorrow and be out of this trouble. Stop, though, there's the other. Which other, sir, asked Miggs, still with her fingers in her ears and her head shaking obstinately, by the tallest one yonder, said Dennis, as he stroked his chin and added in an undertone to himself something about not crossing Mr. Ashford. Miss Miggs replied, still being profoundly deaf, that if Miss Heredale stood in the way at all, he might make himself quite easy on that score as she had gathered from what passed between Hugh and Mr. Tappertip when they were last there, that she was to be removed alone, not by them, but by somebody else, tomorrow night. Mr. Dennis opened his eyes very wide at this piece of information, whistled once, considered once, and finally slapped his head once and nodded once as if he had got the clue to this mysterious removal and so dismissed it. Then he imparted his design concerning Dolly to Miss Miggs, who was taken more deaf than before when he began, and so remained all through. The notable scheme was this. Mr. Dennis was immediately to seek out from among the rioters some daring young fellow, and he had one in his eye, he said, who terrified by the threats he could hold out to him, and alarmed by the capture of so many who were no better and no worse than he, would gladly avail himself of any help to get abroad and out of harm's way with his plunder, even though his journey were encumbered by an unwilling companion. Indeed, the unwilling companion being a beautiful girl would probably be an additional inducement and temptation. Such a person found, he proposed to bring him there on the ensuing night when the tall one was taken off and Miss Miggs had purposely retired, and then that Dolly should be gagged, muffled in a cloak, and carried in any handy conveyance down to the river's side, where there were abundant means of getting her smuggled snugly off in any small craft of doubtful character and no questions asked. With regard to the expense of this removal, he would say, at a rough calculation, that two or three silver tea or coffee pots was something additional for a drink, such as a muffin here or a toast rack, would more than cover it. Articles of plate of every kind, having been buried by the rioters in several lonely parts of London, and particularly as he knew in St. James's Square, which, though easy of access, was little frequented after dark and had a convenient piece of water in the midst, the needful funds were close at hand and could be had upon the shortest notice. With regard to Dolly, the gentleman would exercise his own discretion. He would be bound to do nothing, but to take her away and keep her away. All other arrangements and dispositions would rest entirely with himself. If Miss Miggs had had her hearing, no doubt she would have been greatly shocked by the indelicacy of young females going away with a stranger by night, for her moral feelings, as we have said, were of the tenderest kind. But directly, Mr. Dennis ceased to speak. She reminded him that he had only wasted breath. She then went on to say, still with her fingers in her ears, that nothing less than a severe practical lesson would save the locksmith's daughter from utter ruin, and that she felt it as it were a moral obligation and a sacred duty to the family to wish that someone would devise one for her reformation. Miss Miggs remarked and varied justly as an abstract sentiment which happened to occur to her at the moment, that she dared to say the locksmith and his wife would murmur and repine if they were ever by forcible abduction or otherwise to lose their child, but that we seldom knew in this world what was best for us, such being our sinful and imperfect natures that very few arrived at that clear understanding. Having brought their conversation to the satisfactory end, they parted. Dennis, to pursue his design and take another walk about his farm, Miss Miggs, to launch when he left her into such a burst of mental anguish, which she gave them to understand was occasioned by certain tender things he had had the presumption and audacity to say, that little dolly's heart was quite melted. Indeed, she said and did so much to soothe the outraged feelings of Miss Miggs and looked so beautiful while doing so that a young maid had not had ample vent for her surpassing spite and a knowledge of the mischief that was brewing, she must have scratched her features on the spot. End of Chapter 70 Chapter 71 of Barnaby Rudge This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens Chapter 71 All next day Emma Herodale, Dolly and Miggs remained cooped up together in what had now been their prison for so many days without seeing any person or hearing any sound but the murmured conversation in an outer room of the men who kept watch over them. There appeared to be more of these fellows than there had been hitherto, and they could no longer hear the voices of women which they had before plainly distinguished. Some new excitement too seemed to prevail among them for there was much stealthy going in and out and a constant questioning of those who were newly arrived. They had previously been quite reckless in their behavior, often making a great uproar, quarreling among themselves, fighting, dancing, and singing. They were now very subdued and silent, conversing almost in whispers and stealing in and out with a soft and stealthy tread, very different from the boisterous trampling in which their arrivals and departures had hitherto been announced to the trembling captives. Whether this change was occasioned by the presence among them of some person of authority in their ranks or by any other cause, they were unable to decide.  For last night there had been a shuffling of feet as though a burden were brought in and afterwards a moaning noise. But they had no means of ascertaining the truth. For any question or entreaty on their parts only provoked a storm of execrations or something worse. And they were too happy to be left alone unassailed by threats or admiration to risk even that comfort by any voluntary communication with those who held them endurance. It was sufficiently evident both to Emma and to the locksmith's poor little daughter herself that she, Dolly, was the great object of attraction and that so soon as they should have leisure to indulge in the softer passion, Hugh and Mr. Tapetit would certainly fall the blows for her sake. In which latter case it was not very difficult to see whose prize she would become. With all her old horror of that man revived and deepened into a degree of aversion and abhorrence which no language can describe, with a thousand old recollections and regrets and causes of distress, anxiety, and fear besetting her on all sides, poor Dolly Varden, sweet blooming buxom Dolly, began to hang her head and fade and droop like a beautiful flower. The color fled from her cheeks, her courage for succor, her gentle heart failed.   Poor Dolly's heart, a little gentle idle fickle thing, giddy, restless, fluttering, constant to nothing but bright looks and smiles and laughter, Dolly's heart was breaking. Emma had known grief and could bear it better. She had little comfort to impart, but she could soothe and tend her, and she did so, and Dolly clung to her like a child to its nurse. In endeavoring to inspire her with some fortitude, she increased her own, and though the nights were long and the days dismal, and she felt the wasting influence of watching and fatigue and had perhaps a more defined and clear perception of their destitute condition and its worst dangers, she uttered no complaint. Before the Ruffians, in whose power they were, she bore herself so calmly and with such an appearance in the midst of all her terror of a secret conviction that they dared not harm her, that there was not a man among them but held her in some degree of dread, and more than one believed she had a weapon hidden in her dress and was prepared to use it. Such was their condition when they were joined by Miss Miggs who gave them to understand that she too had been taken prisoner because of her charms and detailed such feats of resistance she had performed, her virtue having given her supernatural strength, that they felt it quite a happiness to have her for a champion. Nor was this the only comfort they derived at first from Miggs's presence in society. For that young lady displayed such resignation and long suffering and so much meek endurance under her trials and breathed in all her chaste discourse a spirit of such holy confidence and resignation and devout belief that all would happen for the best, that Emma felt her courage strengthened by the bright example, never doubting but that everything she said was true and that she, like them, was torn from all she loved and agonized by doubt and apprehension. As to poor Dolly, she was roused at first by seeing one who came from home. But when she heard under what circumstances she had leapted and into whose hands her father had fallen, she wept more bitterly than ever and refused all comfort. Ms. Miggs was at some trouble to reprove her for this state of mind and to entreat her to take example by herself who, she said, was now receiving back with interest tenfold the amount of her subscriptions to the red brick dwelling house in the articles of peace of mind and a quiet conscience. And while on serious topics, Ms. Miggs considered it her duty to try her hand at the conversion of Ms. Haerdale for whose improvement she launched into a polemical address of some length in the courseware of she likened herself unto a chosen missionary and that young lady to a cannibal in darkness. Indeed, she returned so often to these subjects and so frequently called upon them to take a lesson from her at the same time wanting and as it were rioting in her huge unworthiness and abundant excess of sin that in the course of a short time she became in that small chamber rather a nuisance than a comfort and rendered them, if possible, even more unhappy than they had been before. The night had now come and for the first time, for their jailers had been regular in bringing food and candles, they were left in darkness. Any change in their condition in such a place inspired new fears and when some hours had passed and the gloom was still unbroken, Emma could no longer repress her alarm. They listened attentively. There was the same murmuring in the outer room and now in then a moan which seemed to be wrong from a person in great pain who made an effort to subdue it but could not. Even these men seemed to be in darkness too for no light shown through the chinks in the door nor were they moving as their custom was but quite still. The silence being unbroken by so much as the creaking of a board. At first Ms. Mig's wondered greatly in her own mind who this sick person might be but arriving on second thoughts at the conclusion that he was a part of the schemes on foot and an artful device soon to be employed with great success she opined for Ms. Haerdale's comfort that it must be some misguided papers who had been wounded and this happy supposition encouraged her to say under her breath Alleluia several times Is it possible said Elma with some indignation that you who have seen these men committing the outrages you have told us of and who have fallen into their hands like us can exult in their cruelties personal considerations miss rejoin Mig's sinks into nothing for a noble cause Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Dear good gentlemen It seemed from the shrill pertinacity with which Ms. Mig's repeated this form of acclamation that she was calling the same through the keyhole of the door but in the profound darkness she could not be seen If the time has come heaven knows it may come at any moment when they are bent on prosecuting the designs whatever they may be with which they have brought us here can you still encourage and take part with them demanded Emma I thank my goodness gracious blessed stars I can miss returned Mig's with increased energy Alleluia Good gentlemen Even Dolly cast down and disappointed as she was revived at this when Bade Mig's hold her tongue directly Which was you pleased to observe Ms. Vardon? said Mig's with a strong emphasis on the irrelative pronoun Dolly repeated her request Oh gracious me cried Mig's with hysterical derision Oh gracious me Yes to be sure I will Oh yes I am an abject slave and a toiling boiling constant working always being found fault with never giving satisfactions nor having no time to clean oneself Potter's Wessel and I miss Oh yes my situations is lowly my capacities is limited and my duties is to humble myself before the base degenerating daughters of their blessed mothers as is fit to keep companies with holy saints but as born to persecutions from wicked relations and to demean myself before them as is no better than infidels and I miss Oh yes my only becoming occupations is to help young flaunting pagans to brush and comb and tit away their selves into whitening and supple curves and leave the young men to think that there aren't a bit of padding in it nor no pinching ins nor fillings out nor pomadums nor deceits nor earthly wanities and it miss Yes to be sure it is Oh yes having delivered these ironical passages with the most wonderful volubility and with a shrillness perfectly deafening especially when she jerked out the interjections miss miggs from mere habit and not because weeping was at all appropriate to the occasion which was one of triumph concluded by bursting into a flood of tears and calling in an impassioned manner on the name of Simmons what Emma Haerdale and Dolly would have done or how long miss miggs now that she had hoisted her true colors would have gone on waving them before their astonished senses it is impossible to tell nor is it necessary to speculate on these matters for a starling interruption occurred at that moment which took their whole attention by storm this was a violent knocking at the door of the house and then its sudden bursting open which was immediately succeeded by a scuffle in the room without in the clash of weapons transported with the hope that rescue had at length arrived Emma and Dolly shrieked aloud for help nor were their shrieks unanswered for after a hurried interval a man bearing in one hand a drawn sword and in the other a taper rushed into the chamber where they were confined it was some check upon their transport to find in this person an entire stranger but they appealed to him nevertheless and besought him in impassioned language to restore them to their friends for what other purpose have I here he answered closing the door and standing with his back against it with what object have I made my way to this place through difficulty and danger but to preserve you with a joy for which it was impossible to find adequate expression they embraced each other and thanked heaven for this most timely aid their deliverer stepped forward for a moment to put the light upon the table and immediately returning to his former position against the door buried his head and looked on smilingly you have news of my uncle sir said Emma turning hastily towards him and of my father and a mother added Dolly yes he said good news they are alive and unhurt they both cried at once yes and unhurt he rejoined and closed at hand I did not say close at hand he answered smoothly they are at no great distance your friends sweet one he added addressing Dolly are within a few hours journey you will be restored to them I hope tonight my uncle sir faltered Emma your uncle dear miss Haerdale happily I say happily because he has succeeded where many of our creed have failed and is safe has crossed the sea and is out of Britain I thank God for it said Emma faintly you say well you have reason to be thankful greater reason than it is possible for you who have seen but one night of these cruel outrage is to imagine does he desires said Emma that I should follow him do you ask if he desires it cried the stranger in surprise if he desires it but you do not know the danger of remaining in England the difficulty of escape or the price hundreds would pay to secure the means when you make that inquiry pardon me I had forgotten that you could not being prisoner here I gather sir said Emma after a moment's pause from what you hint at but fear to tell me that I have witnessed but the beginning and the least of the violence to which we are exposed and that it has not yet slackened in its fury he shrugged his shoulders shook his head lifted up his hands and with the same smooth smile which was not a pleasant one to see cast his eyes upon the ground and remained silent you may venture sir to speak plain said Emma and to tell me the worst we have undergone some preparation for it but here Dali interposed and then treated her not to hear the worst but the best and we sought the gentleman to tell them the best and to keep the remainder of his news until they were safe among their friends again it is told in three words he said glancing at the laxness daughter with a look of some displeasure the people have risen to a man against us the streets are filled with soldiers who support them and do their bidding we have no protection but from above and no safety but in flight and that is a poor resource for we are watched on every hand and detained here both by force and fraud Ms. Herodale I cannot bear believe me that I cannot bear by speaking of myself or what I have done or I'm prepared to do to seem to want my services before you but having powerful Protestant connections and having my whole wealth embarked with theirs and shipping and commerce I happily possess the means of saving your uncle I have the means of saving you and the redemption of my sacred promise made to him I am here pledged not to leave you until I have placed you in his arms the treachery or penitence of one of the men about you led to the discovery of your place of confinement and that I have forced my way here sword in hand you see you bring said Emma faltering some note or token from my uncle no he doesn't cried Dolly pointing at him earnestly now I am sure he doesn't don't go with him for the world hush pretty fool be silent he replied frowning angrily upon her no Miss Herdale I have no letter nor any token of any kind for while I sympathize with you and such as you on whom misfortune so heavy and so undeserved has fallen I value my life I carry therefore no writing which found upon me would lead to its certain loss you never thought of bringing any other token nor did Mr. Herdale think of entrusting me with one possibly because he had good experience of my faith and honesty and owed his life to me there was a reproof conveyed in these words which to a nature like Emma Herdale was well addressed but Dolly who was differently constituted was by no means touched by it and still conjured her in all the terms of affection and detachment she could think of not to be learned away time presses said their visitor who although he sought to express the deepest interest had something cold and even in his speech that grated on the ear and danger surrounds us if I have exposed myself to it in vain let it be so but if you and he should ever meet again do me justice if you decide to remain as I think you do remember Ms. Herdale that I left you with a solemn caution and acquitting myself of all the consequences to which you expose yourself stay sir cried Emma one moment I beg you cannot we and she drew Dolly closer to her cannot we go together the task of conveying one female in safety through such scenes as we must encounter to say nothing of attracting the attention of those who crowd the streets he answered is enough I have said that she will be restored to her friends tonight if you accept the service I tender Ms. Herdale she shall be instantly placed in safe conduct and that promise redeemed do you decide to remain people of all ranks and creeds are flying from the town which is sacked from end to end let me be of use in some quarter do you stay or go Dolly said Emma in a hurried manner my dear girl this is our last hope if we part now it is only that we may meet again in happiness and honor I will trust to this gentleman no no no prayed Dolly cleaning to her pray pray do not you hear said Emma that tonight only tonight within a few hours think of that you will be among those who would die of grief to lose you and who are now plunged in the deepest misery for your sake pray for me dear girl as I will for you and never forget the many quiet hours we have passed together say one God bless you say that at parting but Dolly could say nothing no not when Emma kissed her cheek a hundred times and covered it with tears could she do more than hang up on her neck and sob and clasp and hold her tight we have time for no more of this cried the man unclenching her hands and pushing her roughly off as he drew Emma Herodale towards the door now quick outside there are you ready a quite a loud voice which made him start quite ready stand back here for your lives and in an instant he was felt like a fox in the butcher's shambles struck down as though a block of marble had fallen from the roof and crushed him and cheerful light and beaming faces came pouring in and Emma was clasped in her uncle's embrace and Dolly with a shriek that pierced the air fell into the arms of her father and mother what fainting there was what laughing what crying what sobbing what smiling how much questioning no answering all talking together all beside themselves with joy what kissing congratulating embracing shaking of hands and falling into all these raptures over and over and over again no language can describe at length and after a long time the old locksmith went up and fairly hugged two strangers who had stood apart and left them to themselves and then they saw whom? yes Edward Chester and Joseph Willett see here Fred the locksmith see here where would any of us have been without these two oh Mr. Edward Mr. Edward oh Joe Joe how light and yet how full you have made my old heart tonight it was Mr. Edward that knocked him down sir said Joe I longed to do it but I gave it up to him come you brave and honest gentlemen get your senses together for you haven't long to lie here he had his foot upon the breast of their sham deliverer in the absence of a spare arm and gave him a gentle role as he spoke Gashford for it was no other crouching yet malignant raised his scowling face like sin some dude and pleaded to be gently used I have access to all my lord's papers Mr. Hairdale he said in a submissive voice Mr. Hairdale giving his back towards him and not once looking round there are very important documents among them there are a great many in secret drawers and distributed in various places known only to my lord and me I can give some very valuable information and render important assistance to any inquiry you will have to answer it if I receive ill usage Pa cried Joe in deep disgust get up man you're waited for outside get up do you hear Gashford slowly rose and picking up his hat and looking with a baffled malevolence yet with an air of despicable humility all around the room crawled out and now gentlemen said Joe who seemed to be the spokesman of the party for all the rest were silent the sooner we get back to the black client the better perhaps Mr. Hairdale nodded ascent and drawing his nieces arm through his and taking one of her hands between his own passed out straightway followed by the locksmith Mrs. Varden and Dolly who would scarcely have presented a sufficient surface for all the hugs and caresses they bestowed upon her though she had been in a dozen Dolly's Edward Chester and Joe followed and did Dolly never once look behind not once was there not one little fleeting glimpse of the dark eyelash almost resting on her flushed cheek and of the downcast sparkling eye it shaded Joe thought there was and he is not likely to have been mistaken for there were not many eyes like Dolly's that's the truth the outer room through which they had to pass was full of men among them Mr. Dennis and safekeeping and there had been since yesterday lying and hiding behind a wooden screen which was now thrown down Simon Tapertit the recreational apprentice burnt and bruised and with a gunshot wound into his body and his legs his perfect legs the pride and glory of his life the comfort of his existence crushed into shapeless ugliness wondering no longer at the moments they had heard Dolly kept closer to her father and shuddered at the sight but neither bruises burns nor gunshot wound nor all the torture of his shattered limbs sent half so keen of paying to Simon's breast as Dolly passing out with Joe for her preserver a coach was ready at the door and Dolly found herself safe and whole inside between her father and mother with Emma Herodale and her uncle quite real sitting opposite but there was no Joe no Edward and they had said nothing they had only bowed once and kept at a distance dear heart what a long way it was to the black lion End of Chapter 71 Recorded by Deborah Lynn Chapter 72 of Barnaby Rudge This LibriVox recording is in the public domain Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens Chapter 72 The black lion was so far off and occupied such a length of time in the getting at that notwithstanding the strong presumptive evidence she had about her of the late events being real and of actual occurrence Dolly could not divest herself of the belief that she must be in a dream which was lasting all night nor was she quite certain that she saw and heard with her own proper senses even when the coach in the fullness of time stopped at the black lion and the host of that tavern approach in a gush of cheerful light to help them to dismount and give them hearty welcome There, too, at the coach door one on one side one upon the other were already Edward Chester and Joe Willett who must have followed in another coach and this was such a strange and unaccountable proceeding that Dolly was the more inclined to favor the idea of her being fast asleep But when Mr. Willett appeared old John himself so heavy-headed and obstinate and with such a double chin as the liveliest imagination could never in its boldest flights have conjured up in all its vast proportions Then she stood corrected and unwillingly admitted to herself that she was brought awake and Joe had lost an arm he that well-made handsome gallant fellow as Dolly glanced towards him and thought of the pain he must have suffered in the far-off places in which he had been wondering and wondered who had been his nurse and hoped that whoever it was she had been as kind and gentle and considerate as she would have been The tears came rising to her bright eyes one by one little by little until she could keep them back no longer and so before them all wept bitterly We are all safe now Dolly said her father kindly we shall not be separated anymore Cheer up my love, cheer up The locksmith's wife knew better perhaps than he what ailed her daughter but Mrs. Vardon being quite an altered woman for the riots had done that good added her word to his and comforted her with similar representations may have said Mr. Willett Sr. looking round upon the company she's hungry that's what it is depend upon it I am myself The black lion who like old John had been waiting supper past all reasonable and conscionable hours hailed this as a philosophical discovery of the profoundest and most penetrating kind and the table being already spread they sat down to supper straightway the conversation was not of the liveliest nature nor were the appetites of some among them very keen but in both these respects old John more than atoned for any deficiency on the part of the rest and very much distinguished himself it was not in point of actual conversation that Mr. Willett shown so brilliantly for he had none of his old cronies to tackle and was rather timorous of venturing on Joe having certain vague misgivings within him that he was ready on the shortest notice and on receipt of the slightest offense to fell the black lion to the floor of his own parlor and immediately to withdraw to China or some other remote and unknown region there to dwell forevermore or at least until he had got rid of his remaining arm and both legs and perhaps an eye or so into the bargain it was with a peculiar kind of pantomime that Mr. Willett filled up every pause and in this he was considered by the black lion who had been his familiar for some years quite to surpass and go beyond himself and outrun the expectations of his most admiring friends the subject that worked in Mr. Willett's mind and occasioned these demonstrations was no other than his son's bodily disfigurement which he had never yet got himself thoroughly to believe or comprehend shortly after their first meeting he had been observed to wander in a state of great perplexity to the kitchen and to direct his gaze towards the fire as if in search of his usual advisor in all matters of doubt and difficulty but there being no boiler at the black lion and the rioters having so beaten and battered his own that it was quite unfit for further service he wandered out again in a perfect bog of uncertainty and mental confusion and in that state took the strangest means of resolving his doubts such as feeling the sleeve of his son's great coat as deeming it possible that his arm might be there looking at his own arms and those of everybody else as if to assure himself that two and not one was the usual allowance sitting by the hour together in a brown study as if he were endeavoring to recall Joe's image in his younger days and to remember whether he really had in those times one arm or a pair and employing himself in many other speculations of the same kind finding himself at this supper surrounded by faces with which he had been so well acquainted in old times Mr. Willett recurred to the subject with uncommon vigor apparently resolved to understand it now or never sometimes after every two or three mouthfuls he laid down his knife and fork and stared at his son with all his might particularly at his memed side then he looked slowly around the table until he caught some person's eye when he shook his head with great solemnity padded his shoulder winked or as one may say for winking was a very slow process with him went to sleep with one eye for a minute or two and so with another solemn shaking of his head took up his knife and fork again and went on eating sometimes he put his food into his mouth abstractedly and with all his faculties concentrated on Joe gazed at him in a bit of stupefaction as he cut his meat with one hand until he was recalled to himself by symptoms of choking on his own part and was by that means restored to consciousness at other times he resorted to such small devices as asking him for the salt the pepper the vinegar the mustard anything that was on his maimed side and watching him as he handed it by dint of these experiments he did at last so satisfied and convinced himself that after a longer silence than he had yet maintained he laid down his knife and fork on either side his plate drank a long draft from a tankard beside him still keeping his eyes on Joe and leaning backward in his chair and fetching a long breath said as he looked all around the board it's been took off by George said the black lion striking the table with his hand he's got it yes sir said Mr. Willett with the look of a man who felt that he had earned a compliment and deserved it that's where it is it's been took off tell him where it was done said the black lion to Joe at the defense of the savannah father at the defense of the savannahs repeated Mr. Willett softly again looking around the table in America where the war is said Joe in America where the war is repeated Mr. Willett it was took off in the defense of the savannahs in America where the war is continuing to repeat these words to himself in a low tone of voice the same information had been conveyed to him in the same terms at least 50 times before Mr. Willett rose from table walked round to Joe felt his empty sleeve all the way up from the cuff to where the stump of his arm remained shook his hand lighted his pipe at the fire took a long whiff walked to the door turned around once when he had reached it wiped his left eye with the back of his forefinger and said in a faltering voice my son's arm was took off at the defense of the savannahs in America where the war is with which words he withdrew and returned no more that night indeed on various pretenses they all withdrew one after another saved Dolly who was left sitting there alone it was a great relief to be alone and she was crying to her heart's content when she heard Joe's voice at the end of the passage bidding somebody good night good night then he was going elsewhere to some distance perhaps to what kind of home could he be going now that it was so late she heard him walk along the passage and passed the door but there was a hesitation in his footsteps he turned back Dolly's heart beat high he looked in good night he didn't say Dolly but there was comfort in his not saying Ms. Varden good night sob Dolly I am sorry you take on so much for what has passed and gone said Joe kindly don't I can't bear to see you do it think of it no longer you are safe and happy now Dolly cried the more you must have suffered very much within these few days and yet you're not changed unless it's for the better they said you were but I don't see it you were you were always very beautiful said Joe but you are more beautiful than ever now you are indeed there could be no harm in my saying so for you must know it you are told so very often I am sure as a general principal Dolly did know it and was told so very often but the coachmaker had turned out years ago to be a special donkey and whether she had been afraid of making similar discoveries in others or had grown by dint of long custom to be careless of compliments generally certain it is that although she cried so much she was better pleased to be told so now than ever she had been in all her life I shall bless your name sobbed the locksmith's little daughter as long as I live I shall never hear it spoken without feelings if my heart would burst I shall remember it in my prayers every night and morning till I die will you said Joe eagerly will you indeed it makes me well it makes me very glad and proud to hear you say so Dolly still sobbed and held her handkerchief to her eyes Joe still stood looking at her your voice said Joe brings up old times so pleasantly that for the moment I feel as if that night there could be no harm in talking of that night now had come back and nothing had happened in the meantime I feel as if I hadn't suffered any hardships but had knocked down poor Tom Cobb only yesterday and had come to see you with my bundle on my shoulder before running away you remember remember but she said nothing she raised her eyes for an instant it was but a glance a little tearful timid glance it kept Joe silent though for a long time well he said stoutly it was to be otherwise and was I have been abroad fighting all the summer and frozen up all the winter ever since I have come back as poor in purse as I went and crippled for life besides but Dolly I would rather have lost this other arm A I would rather have lost my head than have come back to find you dead or anything but what I always pictured you to myself and what I always hoped and wished to find you thank God for all oh how much and how keenly the little coquette of five years ago felt now she had found her heart at last never having known its worth till now she had never known the worth of his how priceless it appeared I did hope once said Joe in his homely way that I might come back a rich man and marry you but I was a boy then and have long known better than that I am a poor maimed discharged soldier and must be content to rub through life as I can I can't say even now that I should be glad to see you married Dolly but I am glad yes I am and glad to think I can say so to know that you are admired and courted and can pick and choose for a happy life it's a comfort to me to know that you'll talk to your husband about me and I hope the time will come when I may be able to like him and to shake hands with him and to come and see you as a poor friend who knew you when you were a girl God bless you his hand did tremble but for all that he took it away again and left her End of Chapter 72 Chapter 73 of Barnaby Rudge This LibriVox recording is in the public domain Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens Chapter 73 By this Friday night for it was on Friday in the riot week that Emma and Dolly were rescued by the timely aid of Joe and Edward Chester the disturbances were entirely quelled and peace and order were restored to the affrighted city True, after what had happened it was impossible for any man to say how long this better state of things might last or how suddenly new outrages exceeding even those so lately witnessed might burst forth and fill its streets with ruin and bloodshed For this reason those who had fled from the recent tumults still kept at a distance and many families hitherto unable to procure the means of flight now availed themselves of the calm and were threw into the country The shops too from Tyburn to Whitechapel were still shut and very little business was transacted in any of the places of great commercial resort But notwithstanding and in spite of the melancholy forebodings of that numerous class of society who see with the greatest clearness into the darkest perspectives the town remained profoundly quiet The strong military force disposed in every advantageous quarter and stationed at every commanding point held the scattered fragments of the mob in check The search after rioters was prosecuted with unrelenting vigor and if there were any among them so desperate and reckless as to be inclined after the terrible scenes they had beheld to venture forth again they were so daunted by these resolute measures that they quickly shrunk into their hiding places and had no thought but for their safety In a word the crowd was utterly routed Upwards of 200 had been shot dead in the streets 250 more were lying badly wounded in the hospitals of whom 70 or 80 died within a short time afterwards 100 were already in custody and more were taken every hour How many perished in the conflagrations or by their own excesses is unknown But that numbers found a terrible grave in the hot ashes of the flames they had kindled or crept into vaults and cellars to drink in secret or to nurse their sores and never saw the light again as certain When the embers of the fires had been black and cold for many weeks the laborer's spades proved this beyond a doubt 72 private houses and four strong jails were destroyed in the four great days of these riots The total loss of property, as estimated by the sufferers was 155,000 pounds at the lowest and least partial estimate of disinterested persons it exceeded 125,000 pounds For this immense loss, compensation was soon afterwards made out of the public purse in pursuance of a vote of the House of Commons The sum being levied on the various wards in the city on the county and the borough of south work Both Lord Mansfield and Lord Seville, however who had been great sufferers refused to accept of any compensation, whatever The House of Commons, sitting on Tuesday with locked and guarded doors had passed a resolution to the effect that as soon as the tumult subsided it would immediately proceed to consider the petitions presented from many of His Majesty's Protestant subjects and would take the same into its serious consideration While this question was under debate Mr. Herbert, one of the members present indignantly rose and called upon the House to observe that Lord George Gordon was then sitting under the gallery with a blue cockade the signal of rebellion in his hat He was not only obliged by those who sat near to take it out but offering to go into the street to pacify the mob with the somewhat indefinite assurance that the House was prepared to give them the satisfaction they sought was actually held down in his seat by the combined force of several members In short, the disorder and violence which reigned triumph and out of doors penetrated into the Senate and there as elsewhere terror and alarm prevailed and ordinary forms were for the time forgotten On the Thursday both houses had adjourned until the following Monday, Saturday night declaring it impossible to pursue their deliberations with the necessary gravity and freedom while they were surrounded by armed troops and now that the rioters were dispersed the citizens were beset with a new fear for finding the public thoroughfares and all their usual places of resort filled with soldiers entrusted with the free use of fire and sword they began to lend a greedy ear to the rumors which were a float of martial law being declared and to dismal stories of prisoners having been seen hanging on lamp posts in Cheapside and Fleet Street These terrors being promptly dispelled by a proclamation declaring that all the rioters in custody would be tried by a special commission in due course of law a fresh alarm was engendered by its being whispered abroad that French money had been found in some of the rioters and that the disturbances had been fomented by foreign powers who sought to compass the overthrow and ruin of England This report which was strengthened by the diffusion of anonymous handbills but which if it had any foundation at all probably owed its origin to the circumstance of some few coins which were not English money having been swept into the pockets of the insurgents with other miscellaneous booty and afterwards discovered on the prisoners or the dead bodies caused a great sensation and men's minds being in that excited state when they are most apt to catch at any shadow of apprehension was brooded about with much industry All remaining quiet however during the whole of this Friday and on this Friday night and no new discoveries being made confidence began to be restored and the most timid and desponding breathed again In Southwick no fewer than 3000 of the inhabitants formed themselves into a watch and patrolled the streets every hour Nor were the citizens slow to follow so good an example and it being the manner of peaceful men to be very bold when the danger is over they were abundantly fierce and daring not scrupling to question the stoutest passenger with great severity and carrying it with a very high hand over all errand boys servant girls and parenthesis As day deepened into evening and darkness crept into the nooks and corners of the town as if it were mustering in secret and gathering strength to venture into the open ways Barnaby sat in his dungeon wondering at the silence and listening in vain for the noise and outcry which had ushered in the night of late Beside him with his hand in hers sat one in whose companionship he felt at peace She was worn and altered full of grief and heavy-hearted but the same to him Mother, he said after a long silence How long, how many days and nights shall I be kept here? Not many, dear, I hope not many You hope? A, but you're hoping we'll not undo these chains I hope, but they don't mind that Grip hopes, but who cares for grip? The raven gave a short dull melancholy croak It said nobody as plainly as a croak could speak Who cares for grip except you and me? said Barnaby Smoothing the birds rumpled feathered with his hand He never speaks in this place He never says a word in jail He sits and mopes all day in his dark corner dozing sometimes and sometimes looking at the light that creeps in through the bars and shines in his bright eye as if a spark from those great fires had fallen into the room and was burning yet But who cares for grip? The raven croaked again Nobody And by the way, said Barnaby withdrawing his hand from the bird and laying it upon his mother's arm as he looked eagerly in her face If they kill me they may, I heard it said they would What will become of grip when I am dead? The sound of the word or the current of his own thoughts suggested to grip his old phrase Never say die But he stopped short in the middle of it drew a dismal cork and subsided into a faint croak as if he lacked the heart to get through the shortest sentence Will they take his life as well as mine? said Barnaby I wish they would If you and I and he could die together there would be none to feel sorry or to grieve for us But do what they will I don't fear them I don't fear them, mother They will not harm you She said her tears choking her utterance They will never harm you when they know all I am sure they never will Oh, don't be too sure of that, cried Barnaby with a strange pleasure in the belief that she was self-deceived and in his own sagacity They have marked me from the first I heard them say so to each other when they brought me to this place last night and I believed them Don't you cry for me They said that I was bold and so I am and so I will be You may think that I am silly but I can die as well as another I have done no harm, have I? He added quickly None before heaven, she answered Why then, said Barnaby let them do their worst You told me once you, when I asked you what death meant that it was nothing to be feared if we did no harm Aha, mother, you thought I had forgotten that His merry laugh and playful manner smoldered her to the heart She drew him closer to her and besawed him to talk to her in whispers and to be very quiet for it was getting dark and their time was short and she would soon have to leave him for the night You will come tomorrow, said Barnaby Yes, and every day and they would never part again He joyfully replied that this was well and what he wished and what he had felt quite certain she would tell him and then he asked her where she had been so long and why she had not come to see him when he had been a great soldier and ran through the wild schemes he had had for their being rich and living prosperously and with some faint notion in his mind that she was sad and he had made her so tried to console and comfort her and talked of their former life and his old sports and freedom little dreaming that every word he uttered only increased her sorrow and that her tears fell faster at the fresh and recollection of their lost tranquility Mother, said Barnaby as they heard the man approaching to close the cells for the night When I spoke to you just now about my father you cried hush and turned away your head Why did you do so? Tell me why in a word You thought he was dead You are not sorry that he is alive and has come back to us Where is he here? Do not ask anyone where he is or speak about him she made answer Why not? said Barnaby because he is a stern man and talks roughly Well, I don't like him or want to be with him by myself but why not speak about him because I am sorry that he is alive sorry that he has come back and sorry that he and you have ever met because dear Barnaby the endeavor of my life has been to keep you two asunder Father and son asunder? Why? He has, she whispered in his ear he has shed blood the time has come when you must know it he has shed the blood of one who loved him well and trusted him and never did him wrong in word or deed Barnaby recoiled in horror and glancing at his stained wrist for an instant wrapped it shuddering in his dress But, she added hastily as the key turned in the lock although we shunned him he is your father, dearest and I am his wretched wife they seek his life and he will lose it it must not be by our means nay, if we could win him back to penitence we should be bound to love him yet Do not seem to know him except as one who fled with you from the jail and if they question you about him do not answer them God be with you through the night, dear boy God be with you She tore herself away and in a few seconds Barnaby was alone he stood for a long time rooted to the spot with his face hidden in his hands then flung himself sobbing on his miserable bed but the moon came slowly up in all her gentle glory and the stars looked out and through the small compass of the graded window as through the narrow crevice of one good deed in a murky life of guilt the face of heaven shone bright and merciful he raised his head gazed upward at the quiet sky which seemed to smile upon the earth in sadness as if the night, more thoughtful than the day looked down in sorrow on the sufferings and evil deeds of men and felt its peace sink deep into his heart he, a poor idiot, caged in his narrow cell was as much lifted up to God while gazing on the mild light as the freest and most favored man in all the spacious city and in his ill-remembered prayer and in the fragment of the childish hymn with which he sung and crooned himself asleep there breathed his truest spirit as ever studied homily expressed or old cathedral arches echoed as his mother crossed a yard on her way out she saw through a graded door which separated it from another court her husband walking round and round with his hands folded on his breast and his head hung down she asked the man who conducted her if she might speak a word with this prisoner yes but she must be quick for he was locking up for the night and there was but a minute or so to spare saying this he unlocked the door and made her go in it graded harshly as it turned upon its hinges but he was deaf to the noise and still walked round and round the little court without raising his head or changing his attitude in the least she spoke to him but her voice was weak and failed her at length she put herself in his track and when he came near stretched out her hand and touched him he started backward trembling from head to foot but seeing who it was demanded why she came there before she could reply he spoke again am I to live or die do you murder too or spare my son our son she answered is in this prison what is that to me he cried stamping impatiently on the stone pavement I know it he can no more aid me than I can aid him if you are come to talk of him be gone as he spoke he resumed his walk and hurried round the court as before when he came again to where she stood he stopped and said am I to live or die do you repent oh do you she answered will you while time remains do not believe that I could save you if I dared say if you would he answered with an oath as he tried to disengage himself and pass on say if you would listen to me for one moment she returned for but a moment I am but newly risen from a sick bed from which I never hoped to rise again the best among us think at such a time of good intentions half performed and duties left undone if I have ever since that fatal night omitted to pray for your repentance before death if I omitted even then anything which might tend to urge it on you when the horror of your crime was fresh if in our later meeting I yielded to the dread that was upon me and forgot to fall upon my knees and solemnly adjure you in the name of him you sent to his account with heaven to prepare for the retribution which must come and which is stealing on you now I humbly before you and in the agony of supplication in which you see me beseech that you will let me make atonement what is the meaning of your canting words he answered roughly speak so that I may understand you I will she answered I desire to bear with me for a moment more the hand of him who set his curse on murder is heavy on us now you cannot doubt it our son our innocent boy on whom his anger fell before his birth is in this place in peril of his life brought here by your guilt yes by that alone as heaven sees and knows for he has been led astray in the darkness of his intellect and that is the terrible consequence of your crime if you come womanlike to load me with reproaches he muttered again endeavoring to break away I do not I have a different purpose you must hear it if not tonight tomorrow if not tomorrow at another time you must hear it husband escape is hopeless impossible you tell me so do you he said raising his manacled hand and shaking it you yes she said with indescribable earnestness but why to make me easy in this jail to make the time to express this in death past pleasantly for my good yes for my good of course he said grinding his teeth and smiling at her with a livid face not to load you with reproaches she replied not to aggravate the tortures and miseries of your condition not to give you one hard word but to restore you to peace and hope husband dear husband if you will but confess this dreadful crime if you will but implore forgiveness of heaven and of those whom you have wronged on earth if you will dismiss these vain uneasy thoughts which never can be realized and will rely on penitence and on the truth I promise you in the great name of the creator whose image you have defaced that he will comfort and console you and for myself she cried clasping her hands and looking upward I swear before him as he knows my heart and reads it now that from that hour I will love and cherish you as I did of old and watch you night and day in the short interval that will remain to us and soothe you with my truest love and duty and pray with you that one threatening judgment may be arrested and that our boy may be spared to bless God in his poor way in the free air and light he fell back and gazed at her while she poured out these words as though he were for a moment awed by her manner and knew not what to do but anger and fear soon got the mastery of him and he spurned her from him be gone he cried leave me you plot do you you plot to get speech with me and let them know I am the man they say I am a curse on you and on your boy on him the curse has already fallen she replied ringing her hands let it fall heavier let it fall on one and all I hate you both the worst has come to me the only comfort that I seek or I can have will be the knowledge that it comes to you now go she would have urged him gently even then but he menaced her with his chain I say go I say it for the last time the gallows has me in its grasp and it is a black phantom that may urge me on to something more be gone I cursed the hour that I was born the man I slew in all the living world in a paroxysm of wrath and terror and the fear of death he broke from her and rushed into the darkness of his cell where he cast himself jangling down upon the stone floor and smote it with his ironed hands the man returned to lock the dungeon door and having done so carried her away on that warm balmy night in June there were glad faces and light hearts in all quarters of the town and sleep banished by the late horrors was doubly welcomed on that night families made merry in their houses and greeted each other on the common danger they had escaped and those who had been denounced ventured into the streets and they who had been plundered got good shelter even the timorous lord mayor who was summoned that night before the privy council to answer for his conduct came back contented observing to all his friends that he had got off very well with a reprimand and repeating with huge satisfaction his memorable defense before the council that such was his temerity he thought death would have been his portion on that night too more of the scattered remnants of the mob were traced to their lurking places and taken and in the hospitals and deep among the ruins they had made and in the ditches and fields many unshrouded wretches lay dead envied by those who had been active in the disturbances and who pillowed their doomed heads in the temporary jails and in the tower in a dreary room was thick stone walls shut out the hum of life and made a stillness which the records left by former prisoners with those silent witnesses seemed to deepen and intensify remorseful for every act that had been done by every man among the cruel crowd feeling for the time their guilt his own and their lives put in peril by himself and finding amidst such reflections little comfort and fanaticism or in his fancied call sat the unhappy author of all Lord George Gordon he had been made prisoner that evening if you are sure it's me you want he said to the officers who waited outside with the warrant for his arrest on a charge of high treason I am ready to accompany you which he did without resistance he was conducted first before the privy council and afterwards to the horse guards and then was taken by way of westminster bridge and back over london bridge for the purpose of avoiding the main streets to the tower under the strongest guard ever known to enter its gates with a single prisoner of all his 40,000 men not one remained to bear him company friends, dependents, followers none were there his dawning secretary had played the traitor and he whose weakness had been goaded and urged on by so many for their own purposes was desolate and alone End of Chapter 73 Chapter 74 of Barnaby Rudge this LibriVox recording is in the public domain Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens Chapter 74 Mr. Dennis, having been made prisoner late in the evening was removed to a neighboring roundhouse for that night and carried before a justice for examination on the next day, Saturday the charges against him being numerous and weighty and it being in particular approved by the testimony of Gabriel Varden that he had shown a special desire to take his life he was committed for trial moreover he was honored with the distinction of being considered a chief among the insurgents and received from the magistrates lips the complimentary assurance that he was in a position of imminent danger and would do well to prepare himself for the worst to say that Mr. Dennis's modesty was not somewhat startled by these owners or that he was all together prepared for so flattering a reception would be to claim for him a greater amount of stoical philosophy than even he possessed indeed this gentleman's stoicism was of that not uncommon kind which enables a man to bear with exemplary fortitude the afflictions of his friends but renders him by way of counter poise rather selfish and sensitive in respect of any that happened to befall himself it is therefore no disparagement to the great officer in question to state without disguise or concealment that he was at first very much alarmed and that he betrayed diverse emotions of fear until his reasoning powers came to his relief and set before him a more hopeful prospect in proportion as Mr. Dennis exercised these intellectual qualities with which he was gifted and reviewing his best chances of coming off handsomely and with small personal inconvenience his spirits rose and his confidence increased when he remembered the great estimation in which his office was held and the constant demand for his services when he thought himself how the statute book regarded him as a kind of universal medicine applicable to men women and children of every age and variety of criminal constitution and how high he stood in his official capacity in the favor of the crown in both houses of parliament the mint the bank of england and the judges of the land when he recollected that whatever ministry was in or out he remained their peculiar patent penacea and that for his sake england stood single and conspicuous among the civilized nations of the earth when he called these things to mind and dwelt upon them he felt certain that the national gratitude must relieve him from the consequences of his late proceedings and would certainly restore him to his old place in the happy social system with these crumbs or as one may say with these whole loaves of comfort to regale upon Mr. Dennis took his place among the escort that awaited him and repaired to jail with a manly indifference arriving at Newgate where some of the ruined cells had been hastily fitted up for the safekeeping of rioters he was warmly received by the turn keys as an unusual and interesting case which agreeably relieved their monotonous duties in this spirit he was fettered with great care and conveyed into the interior of the prison brother cried the hangman as following an officer he traversed under these novel circumstances the remains of passages with which he was well acquainted am i going to be along with anybody if you'd have left more walls standing you'd have been alone was the reply as it is we're cramped for room and you'll have company well returned Dennis I don't object to company brother I rather like company I was formed for society I was it's rather a pity in it said the man no answered Dennis I'm not aware that it is why should it be a pity brother oh I don't know said the man carelessly I thought that was what you meant being formed for society and being cut off in your flower you know I say and oppose the other quickly what are you talking of don't who's going to be cut off in their flowers oh nobody particular I thought you was perhaps said the man Mr. Dennis wiped his face which had suddenly grown very hot and remarking in a tremulous voice to his conductor that he had always been fond of his joke followed him in silence until he stopped at a door this is my quarters is it he asked facetiously this is the shop sir replied his friend he was walking in but not with the best possible grace when he suddenly stopped and started back hello said the officer you're nervous nervous whispered Dennis in great alarm well I may be shut the door I will when you're in returns the man but I can't go in there whispered Dennis I can't be shut up with that man do you want me to be throttled brother the officer seemed to entertain no particular desire on the subject one way or other but briefly remarking that he had his orders and intended to obey them pushed him in turned the key and retired Dennis stood trembling with his back against the door and involuntarily raising his arm to defend himself stared at a man the only other tenant of the cell who lay stretched at his full length upon a stone bench and who paused in his deep breathing as if he were about to wake but he rolled over on one side let his arm fall negligently down drew along sigh and murmuring indistinctly fell fast asleep again relieved in some degree by this the hangman took his eyes for an instant from the slumbering figure and glanced round the cell in search of some vantage ground or weapon of defense there was nothing movable within it but a clumsy table which could not be displaced without noise and a heavy chair stealing on tiptoe towards this latter piece of furniture he retired with it into the remotest corner and entrenching himself behind it watched the enemy with the utmost vigilance and caution the sleeping man was Hugh and perhaps it was not unnatural for Dennis to feel in a state of very uncomfortable suspense and to wish with his whole soul that he might never wake again tired of standing he crouched down in his corner after some time and rested on the cold pavement but although Hugh's breathing still proclaimed that he was sleeping soundly he could not trust him out of his sight for an instant he was so afraid of him and of some sudden onslaught that he was not content to see his closed eyes through the chair back but every now and then rose stealthily to his feet and peered at him without stretched neck to assure himself that he really was still asleep and was not about to spring upon him when he was off his guard he slipped so long and so soundly that Mr. Dennis began to think he might sleep on until the turnkey visited them he was congratulating himself upon these promising appearances and blessing his stars with much fervor when one or two unpleasant symptoms manifested themselves such as another motion of the arm another sigh a restless tossing of the head then just as it seemed that he was about to fall heavily to the ground from his narrow bed Hugh's eyes opened it happened that his face was turned directly towards his unexpected visitor he looked lazily at him for some half dozen seconds without any aspect of surprise or recognition then suddenly jumped up and with a great oath pronounced his name keep off brother keep off cried Dennis dodging behind the chair don't do me a mischief I'm a prisoner like you I haven't the free use of my limbs I'm quite an old man don't hurt me he wind out the last three words in such piteous accents that Hugh who had dragged away the chair and aimed to blow at him with it checked himself and made him get up I'll get up certainly brother cried Dennis anxious to propitiate him by any means in his power I'll comply with any request of yours I'm sure there I'm up now what can I do for you only say the word and I'll do it what can you do for me cried Hugh clutching him by the collar with both hands and shaking him as though he were bent on stopping his breath by that means what have you done for me the best the best that could be done returned the hangman Hugh made him no answer but shaking him in his strong grip until his teeth shattered in his head cast him down upon the floor and flung himself on the bench again if it wasn't for the comfort it is to me to see you here he muttered I'd have crushed your head against it I would it was some time before Dennis had breath enough to speak but as soon as he could resume his propitiatory strain he did so I did the best that could be done brother he whined I did indeed I was forced with two bayonets and I don't know how many bullets on each side of me to point you out if you hadn't been taken you'd have been shot and what a sight that would have been a fine young man like you will it be a better sight now asked you raising his head with such a fierce expression that the other durst not answer him just then a deal better said Dennis meekly after a pause first there's all the chances of the law and they're 500 strong we may get off scot-free unlikelier things than that have come to pass even if we shouldn't and the chances fail we can but be worked off once and when it's well done it's so neat so skillful so captivating if that don't seem too strong a word that you'd hardly believe it could be brought to such perfection kill one's fellow creeders off with muskets pop and his nature so revolted at the bare idea that he spat upon the dungeon pavement his warming on this topic which to one unacquainted with his pursuits and tastes appeared like courage together with his artful suppression of his own secret hopes and mention of himself as being in the same condition with Hugh did more to soothe that ruffian than the most elaborate arguments could have done or the most abject submission he rested his arms upon his knees and stooping forward looked from beneath his shaggy hair at Dennis with something of a smile upon his face the fact is brother said the hangman in a tone of greater confidence that you got into bad company the man that was with you was looked after more than you and it was him I wanted as to me what have I got by it here we are in one in the same plight lookie rascal said Hugh contracting his brows I'm not altogether such a shallow blade but I know you expected to get something by it or you wouldn't have done it but it's done and you're here and it will soon be all over with you and me and I'd as soon die as live or live as die why should I trouble myself to have revenge on you to eat and drink and go to sleep as long as I stay here is all I care for if there was but a little more sun to bask in then can find its way into this cursed place I'd lie in it all day and not trouble myself to sit or stand up once that's all the care I have for myself why should I care for you finishing this speech with a growl like the yawn of a wild beast he stretched himself upon the bench again and closed his eyes once more after looking at him in silence for some moments Dennis who was greatly relieved to find him in this mood drew the chair towards his rough couch and sat down near him taking the precaution however to keep out of the range of his brawny arm well said brother nothing could be better said he ventured to observe we'll eat and drink of the best and sleep our best and make the best of it every way anything can be got for money let's spend it merrily a said Hugh calling himself into a new position where is it why they took mine from me at the lodge said mr. Dennis but mine's a peculiar case is it they took mine too why then I tell you what brother Dennis began you must look up your friends my friends cried Hugh starting up and resting on his hands where are my friends your relations then said Dennis laughed Hugh waving one arm above his head he talks of friends to me talks of relations to a man whose mother died the death in store for her son and left him a hungry brat without a facing you in all the world he talks of this to me brother cried the hangman whose features underwent a sudden change you don't mean to say I mean to say Hugh interposed that they hung her up at Tyburn what was good enough for her is good enough for me let them do the like by me as soon as they please the sooner the better say no more to me I'm going to sleep but I want to speak to you I want to hear more about that said Dennis changing color if you're a wise man growled Hugh raising his head to look at him with a frown you'll hold your tongue I tell you I'm going to sleep Dennis venturing to say something more in spite of this caution the desperate fellow struck at him with all his force and missing him lay down again with many muttered oaths and implications and turned his face towards the wall after two or three ineffectual twitches at his dress which he was hardy enough to venture upon notwithstanding his dangerous humor Mr. Dennis who burnt for reasons of his own to pursue the conversation had no alternative but to sit as patiently as he could waiting his further pleasure End of Chapter 74