" What if barbarities do result, and murders stalk
abroad ; was ever revolution accomplished without .■■ "
asked Coleridge, now a rabid revolutionist. " Of course
blood flows and prisons teem ; is Liberty not worth the
cost?"

The staid old English towers frowned down upon
such heresy. The solemn professors frowned even
more blackly upon the suspicion of disloyalty among
college men, and the firebrand was quenched by
stricter rules, and more watchful vigilance over
college hours and work. The French populace had
risen, and were sweeping down king, nobles, g.nd laws
in a wholesale devastation. Hideous mobs pillaged
and murdered in the name of Liberty. Blood flowed
like water down the streets of Paris, and, like a red rag
to a bull, red caps and rosettes excited fresh horrors.
Setting up their goddess of Reason in the Notre Dame,
they massacred bishops and priests, for Liberty.
And our mad young Englishmen felt the passion for
license in their souls, and shouted for Liberty too, and
wildest of them was our dreamer Coleridge, who ever
welcomed a new sensation or enthusiasm as the voice
of God. There was no Boyer now to hold him in check ;
the revolutionary yeast must rise until it soured. So he
worked on in secret meetings and debates, a recog-



46 THE DA YS OF LAMB AND COLERIDGE.
nized leader, with his golden eloquence and his boyish
enthusiasm.
Upon his arrival at Cambridge, a fine gentleman had
called, offering to furnish his room, as though sent by
the authorities, and telling him of the necessity for
establishing himself properly among his associates.
