HARD WORDS THE PRECURSORS OF HARD BLOWS--A TURN-UP, TO BE APPREHENDED,
BUT NOT MERELY OF POLYSYLLABLES--RALPH COMMENCES RAVING--ROOT
RESISTING--THE LATTER GETS THE WHIP-HAND OF US.
Whilst this commotion was going on in the school-room, Mr Root was
active in the field, endeavouring, with the aid of the men-servants, to
pluck as much fuel from the burning pile as possible. The attempt was
nearly vain. He singed his clothes, and burnt his hands, lost his hat
in the excitement and turmoil, and sadly discomposed his powdered
ringlets. Advices were brought to him (we must now use the phrase
military) of the demonstration made by the young gentlemen in the
schoolroom. He hurried with the pitchfork in his hand, which he had
been using, and appeared at the entrance of his pandemonium, almost,
considering his demoniac look, in character. He made a speech, enforced
by thumping the handle of the fork against the floor, which speech,
though but little attended to, was marked by one singularity. He did
not tell the lads to turn up any of his hard words. However, he hoped
that the young gentlemen had yet sense of propriety enough left, to
permit the servants to clear the tables of the plates, knives, forks,
and other dinner appurtenances. This was acceded to by shouts of "Let
them in--let them in." The girls and the two school men-servants came
in, one of the latter being the obnoxious hoister, and they were
permitted to perform their office in a dead silence. It speaks well for
our sense of honour, and respect for the implied conditions of the
treaty, when it is remembered that this abhorred Tom, the living
instrument of our tortures, and on whose back we had most of us so often
writhed, was permitted to go into the darkest corners of the room
unmolested, and even uninsulted. When the tables were cleared, then
rung out exultingly the shout of "Bar him out--bar him out!"
"I never yet," roared out Mr Root, "was barred out of my own premises,
and I never will be!" He was determined to resist manfully, and, if he
fell, to fall like Caesar, in the capitol, decorously: so, as togae are
not worn in our unclassical days, he retired to prepare himself for the
contention, by getting his head newly powdered, telling his assistants
to keep the position they still held, at all hazards, near the door.
Before I narrate the ensuing struggle--a struggle that will be ever
remembered in the town in which it took place, and which will serve
anyone that was engaged in it, as long as he lives, to talk of with
honest enthusiasm, even if he has been happy enough to have been engaged
in real warfare; it is necessary to describe exactly the battle-field.
The school was a parallelogram, bowed at one end, and about the
dimensions of a moderately-sized chapel. It was very lofty, and, at the
bowed end, which looked into the fields, there were three large windows
built very high, and arched after the ecclesiastical fashion. One of
the sides had windows similar to those at the end. The school-room was
entered from the house by a lobby, up into which lobby, terminated a
wide staircase, from the play-ground. The school-room was therefore
entered from the lobby by only one large folding door. But over this
end there was a capacious orchestra supported by six columns, which
orchestra contained a very superb organ. The orchestra might also be
entered from the house, but from a floor and a lobby above that which
opened into the school-room. Consequently, at the door-end of the
school-room, there was a space formed of about twelve or fourteen feet,
with a ceiling much lower than the rest of the building, and which space
was bounded by the six pillars that supported the gallery above. This
low space was occupied by the masters and assistants--certainly a strong
position, as it commanded the only outlet. The whole edifice was built
upon rows of stone columns, that permitted the boys a sheltered
play-ground beneath the school-room in inclement or rainy weather. The
windows being high from the floor within doors, and very high indeed
from the ground without, they were but sorry and dangerous means of
communication, through which, either to make an escape, or bring in
succours or munitions should the siege be turned to a blockade. It was,
altogether, a vast, and, when properly fitted up, a superb apartment,
and was used for the monthly concerts and the occasional balls.
Time elapsed. It seemed that we were the party barred in, instead of
the master being the party barred out. The mass of rebellion was as
considerable as any Radical could have wished; and, as yet, as
disorganised as any Tory commander-in-chief of the forces could have
desired. However, Mr Root did not appear; and it having become
completely dark, the boys themselves lighted the various lamps. About
six or seven o'clock there was a stir among the learned guard at the
door, when at length Mr Reynolds, the head classical master, having
wrapped the silver top of his great horn snuff-box, in a speech,
mingled, very appropriately, with Latin and Greek quotations, wished to
know what it was precisely that the young gentlemen desired, and he was
answered by fifty voices at once, "Leave to go into the fields, and let
off the fireworks."
After a pause, a message was brought that this could not be granted;
but, upon the rest of the school going quietly to bed, permission would
be given to all the young gentlemen above fifteen years of age to go
down to the town until eleven o'clock. The proposal was refused with
outcries of indignation. We now had many leaders, and the shouts "Force
the door!" became really dreadful. Gradually the lesser boys gave back,
and the young men formed a dense front line, facing the sixteen masters,
whose position was fortified by the pillars supporting the orchestra,
and whose rear was strengthened by the servants of the household. As
yet, the scholars stood with nothing offensive in their hands, and with
their arms folded in desperate quietude. At last, there was a voice a
good way in the _rear_, which accounts for the bravery of the owner,
that shouted, "Why don't you rally, and force the door?" Here Monsieur
Moineau, a French emigre, and our Gallic tutor, cried out lustily, "You
shall force that door, never--_jamais, jamais_--my pretty _garcons, mes
chers pupils_, be good, be quiet--go you couch yourselves--les _feux
d'artifice_! bah! they worth noding at all--you go to bed. Ah, ah,
_demain_--all have _conge_--one two, half-holiday--but you force this
door--_par ma foi, e--jamais_--you go out, one, two, three, _four_--go
over dis _corps_, of Antoine Auguste Moineau."
We gave the brave fellow a hearty cheer for his loyalty; and, I have no
doubt, had he he been allowed to remain, he would have been trampled to
death on his post. He had lost his rank, his fortune, everything but
his self-respect, in the quarrel of his king, who had just fallen on the
scaffold; he had a great respect for constituted authority, and was
sadly grieved at being obliged to honour heroism in spite of himself,
when arrayed against it.
Let us pause over these proceedings, and return to myself. As the
rebellion increased, I seemed to be receiving the elements of a new
life. My limbs trembled, but it was with a fierce joy. I ran hither
and thither exultingly--I pushed aside boys three or four years older
than myself--I gnashed my teeth, I stamped, I clenched my hands,--I
wished to harangue, but I could not find utterance, for the very excess
of thoughts. At that moment I would not be put down; I grinned defiance
in the face of my late scorners; I was drunk with the exciting draught
of contention. The timid gave me their fireworks, the brave applauded
my resolution, and, as I went from one party to another, exhorting more
by gesture than by speech, I was at length rewarded by hearing the
approving shout of "Go it, Ralph Rattlin!"
I am not fearful of dwelling too much upon the affair. It must be
interesting to those amiabilities called the "rising generation," the
more especially as a "barring out" is now become matter of history.
Alas! we shall never go back to the good old times in that respect,
notwithstanding we are again snugly grumbling under a Whig government.
Let us place at least one "barring out" upon record, in order to let the
Radicals see, and seeing, hope, when they find how nearly extremes
meet--what a slight step there is from absolute despotism to absolute
disorganisation.
Things were in this state, the boys encouraging each other, when, to our
astonishment, Mr Root, newly-powdered, and attended by two friends, his
neighbours, made his appearance in the orchestra, and incontinently
began a speech. I was then too excited to attend to it; indeed, it was
scarcely heard for revilings and shoutings. However, I could contain
myself no longer, and I, even I, though far from being in the first
rank, shouted forth, "Let us out, or we will set fire to the
school-room, and, if we are burnt, you will be hung for murder." Yes, I
said those words--I, who now actually start at my own shadow--I, who
when I see a stalwart, whiskered and moustached fellow coming forward to
meet me, modestly pop over on the other side--I, who was in a fit of the
trembles the whole year of the comet!
"God bless me," said Mr Root, "it is that vagabond Rattlin! I flogged
the little incorrigible but eight hours ago, and now he talks about
burning my house down. There's gratitude for you! But I'll put a stop
to this at once--young gentlemen, I'll put a stop to this at once! I'm
coming down among you to seize the ringleaders, and that
good-for-nothing Rattlin. Ah! the monitors, and the heads of all the
classes shall be flogged; the rest shall be forgiven, if they will go
quietly to bed, and give up all their fireworks." Having so said, he
descended from above with his friends, and, in about a quarter of an
hour afterwards, armed with a tremendous whip, he appeared among his
satellites below.