THE MOB’S ARRIVAL AT SIR FRANCIS VARNEY’S.—THE ATTEMPT TO GAIN
ADMISSION.
The soldiery had been sent for from their principal station near the
churchyard, and had advanced with some degree of reluctance to quell
what they considered as nothing better nor worse than a drunken brawl
at a public-house, which they really considered they ought not to be
called to interfere with.
When, however, the party reached the spot, and heard what a confusion
there was, and saw in what numbers the rioters were assembling, it
became evident to them that the case was of a more serious complexion
than they had at first imagined, and consequently they felt that
their professional dignity was not so much compromised with their
interference with the lawless proceedings.
Some of the constabulary of the town were there, and to them the
soldiers promised they would hand what prisoners they took, at the
same time that they made a distinct condition that they were not to
be troubled with their custody, nor in any way further annoyed in the
business beyond taking care that they did not absolutely escape, after
being once secured.
This was all that the civil authorities of the town required, and,
in fact, they hoped that, after making prisoners of a few of the
ringleaders of the riotous proceedings, the rest would disperse, and
prevent the necessity of capturing them.
Be it known, however, that both military and civil authorities were
completely ignorant of the dreadful outrage against all common decency,
which had been committed within the public-house.
The door was well guarded, and the question now was how the rioters
were to be made to come down stairs, and be captured; and this was
likely to remain a question, so long as no means were adopted to make
them descend. So that, after a time, it was agreed that a couple of
troopers should march up stairs with a constable, to enable him to
secure any one who seemed a principal in the riot.
But this only had the effect of driving those who were in the
second-floor, and saw the approach of the two soldiers, whom they
thought were backed by the whole of their comrades, up a narrow
staircase, to a third-floor, rather consisting of lofts than of actual
rooms; but still, for the time, it was a refuge; and owing to the
extreme narrowness of the approach to it, which consisted of nearly a
perpendicular staircase, with any degree of tact or method, it might
have been admirably defended.
In the hurry and scramble, all the lights were left behind; and when
the two soldiers and constables entered the room where the corpse had
lain, they became, for the first time, aware of what a horrible purpose
had been carried out by the infuriated mob.
[Illustration: The discovery of the desecrated corpse.]
The sight was one of perfect horror, and hardened to scenes which might
strike other people as being somewhat of the terrific as these soldiers
might be supposed to be by their very profession, they actually
sickened at the sight which the mutilated corpse presented, and turned
aside with horror.
These feelings soon gave way to anger and animosity against the crowd
who could be guilty of such an atrocious outrage; and, for the first
time, a strong and interested vengeance against the mob pervaded the
breasts of those who were brought to act against it.
One of the soldiers ran down stairs to the door, and reported the scene
which was to be seen above. A determination was instantly come to,
to capture as many as possible of those who had been concerned in so
diabolical an outrage, and leaving a guard of five men at the door, the
remainder of the party ascended the staircase, determined upon storming
the last refuge of the rioters, and dragging them to justice.
The report, however, of these proceedings that were taking place at the
inn, spread quickly over the whole town; and soon as large a mob of the
disorderly and the idle as the place could at all afford was assembled
outside the inn.
This mob appeared, for a time, inertly to watch the proceedings. It
seemed rather a hazardous thing to interfere with the soldiers, whose
carbines look formidable and troublesome weapons.
With true mob courage, therefore, they left the minority of their
comrades, who were within the house, to their fate; and after a
whispered conference from one to the other, they suddenly turned in a
body, and began to make for the outskirts of the town.
They then separated, as if by common consent, and straggled out into
the open country by twos and threes, consolidating again into a mass
when they had got some distance off, and clear of any exertions that
could be made by the soldiery to stay them.
The cry then rose of “Down with Sir Francis Varney—slay him—burn his
house—death to all vampyres!” and, at a rapid pace, they proceeded in
the direction of his mansion.
We will leave this mob, however, for the present, and turn our
attention to those who are at the inn, and are certainly in a position
of some jeopardy. Their numbers were not great, and they were unarmed;
certainly, their best chance would have been to have surrendered at
discretion; but that was a measure which, if the sober ones had felt
inclined to, those who were infuriated and half maddened with drink
would not have acceded to on any account.
A furious resistance was, therefore, fairly to be expected; and what
means the soldiery were likely to use for the purpose of storming this
last retreat was a matter of rather anxious conjecture.
In the case of a regular enemy, there would not, perhaps, have been
much difficulty; but here the capture of certain persons, and not their
destruction, was the object; and how that was to be accomplished by
fair means, certainly was a question which nobody felt very competent
to solve.
Determination, however, will do wonders; and although the rioters
numbered over forty, notwithstanding all their desertions, and not
above seventeen or eighteen soldiers marched into the inn, we shall
perceive that they succeeded in accomplishing their object without any
manœuvring at all.
The space in which the rioters were confined was low, narrow, and
inconvenient, as well as dark, for the lights on the staircase cast up
that height but very insufficient rays.
Weapons of defence they found but very few, and yet there were some
which, to do them but common credit, they used as effectually as
possible.
These attics, or lofts, were used as lumber-rooms, and had been so for
years, so that there was a collection of old boxes, broken pieces of
furniture, and other matters, which will, in defiance of everything and
everybody, collect in a house.
These were formidable means of defence, if not of offence, down a very
narrow staircase, had they been used with judgment.
Some of the rioters, who were only just drunk enough to be fool-hardy,
collected a few of these articles at the top of the staircase, and
swore they would smash anybody who should attempt to come up to them, a
threat easier uttered than executed.
And besides, after all, if their position had been ever so impregnable,
they must come down eventually, or be starved out.
But the soldiers were not at liberty to adopt so slow a process of
overcoming their enemy, and up the second-floor staircase they went,
with a determination of making short work of the business.
They paused a moment, by word of command, on the landing, and then,
after this slight pause, the word was given to advance.
Now when men will advance, in spite of anything and everything, it is
no easy matter to stop them, and he who was foremost among the military
would as soon thought of hesitating to ascend the narrow staircase
before him, when ordered so to do, as paying the national debt. On he
went, and down came a great chest, which, falling against his feet,
knocked him down as he attempted to scramble over it.
“Fire,” said the officer; and it appeared that he had made some
arrangements as to how the order was to be obeyed, for the second man
fired his carbine, and then scrambled over his prostrate comrade; after
which he stooped, and the third fired his carbine likewise, and then
hurried forward in the same manner.
At the first sound of the fire arms the rioters were taken completely
by surprise; they had not had the least notion of affairs getting
to such a length. The smell of the powder, the loud report, and the
sensation of positive danger that accompanied these phenomena, alarmed
them most terrifically; so that, in point of fact, with the exception
of the empty chest that was thrown down in the way of the first
soldier, no further idea of defence seemed in any way to find a place
in the hearts of the besieged.
They scrambled one over the other in their eagerness to get as far
as possible from immediate danger, which, of course, they conceived
existed in the most imminent degree the nearest to the door.
Such was the state of terror into which they were thrown, that each
one at the moment believed himself shot, and the soldiers had overcome
all the real difficulties in getting possession of what might thus
be called the citadel of the inn, before those men who had been so
valorous a short time since recovered from the tremendous fright into
which they had been thrown.
We need hardly say that the carbines were loaded, but with blank
cartridges, for there was neither a disposition nor a necessity for
taking the lives of these misguided people.
It was the suddenness and the steadiness of the attack that had done
all the mischief to their cause; and now, ere they recovered from the
surprise of having their position so completely taken by storm, they
were handed down stairs, one by one, from soldier to soldier, and into
the custody of the civil authorities.
In order to secure the safe keeping of large a body of prisoners,
the constables, who were in a great minority, placed handcuffs upon
some of the most capable of resistance; so what with those who were
thus secured, and those who were terrified into submission, there was
not a man of all the lot who had taken refuge in the attics of the
public-house but was a prisoner.
At the sound of fire-arms, the women who were outside the inn had, of
course, raised a most prodigious clamour.
They believed directly that every bullet must have done some most
serious mischief to the townspeople, and it was only upon one of the
soldiers, a non-commissioned officer, who was below, assuring them of
the innoxious nature of the proceeding which restored anything like
equanimity.
“Silence!” he cried; “what are you howling about? Do you fancy that
we’ve nothing better to do than to shoot a parcel of fellows that
are not worth the bullets that would be lodged in their confounded
carcases?”
“But we heard the gun,” said a woman.
“Of course you did; it’s the powder that makes the noise, not the
bullet. You’ll see them all brought out safe wind and limb.”
This assurance satisfied the women to a certain extent, and such had
been their fear that they should have had to look upon the spectacle
of death, or of grievous wounds, that they were comparatively quite
satisfied when they saw husbands, fathers, and brothers, only in the
custody of the town officers.
And very sheepish some of the fellows looked, when they were handed
down and handcuffed, and the more especially when they had been routed
only by a few blank cartridges—that sixpennyworth of powder had
defeated them.
They were marched off to the town gaol, guarded by the military, who
now probably fancied that their night’s work was over, and that the
most turbulent and troublesome spirits in the town had been secured.
Such, however, was not the case, for no sooner had comparative order
been restored, than common observation pointed to a dull red glare in
the southern sky.
In a few more minutes there came in stragglers from the open country,
shouting “Fire! fire!” with all their might.