THE COMPANY OF REVENGE
The case was over--I stepped out of the Dock: I was free: everybody,
including Mr. Caterham, K.C., was shaking my hand: the Lord Mayor sent
for me to the Bench and shook my hand warmly: he said that he had known
my worthy father, Sir Peter, and that he rejoiced that my innocence had
been made as clear as the noonday: all the Jury shook hands with me: my
cousin Tom paid my dues to the prison, without payment of which even a
free man, proved innocent, must go back to the prison again and there
stay till he discharges them--because a gaoler everywhere has a heart
made of flint. At last, surrounded by my friends I went out of Court.
Outside in the street there was a crowd who shouted and cried my name
with 'Death to the Conspirators!' But I saw many who did not shout. Who
are they who had no sympathy with innocence? They stood apart, with
lowering faces. They came down from the public gallery where--I was
afterwards told--the appearance in that witness-box first of the
well-known landlady of the Black Jack--their ancient friend: next, of
her daughter--also their friend: thirdly, of the young fellow called
Jack, one of themselves, a rogue and the companion of rogues: and
lastly, of the woman of whom they had been so proud, Jenny the actress,
Jenny the Orange Girl: Jenny of Drury Lane: filled them with dismay and
rage. What? Their own people turn against their own friends? The
landlady of the Black Jack, even the landlady of the Black Jack, that
most notorious receiver of stolen goods, and harbourer of rogues, to
give evidence against her own customers? Thief betray thief? Dog bite
dog? Heard ever man the like? Now you understand the lowering and gloomy
faces. These people whispered to each other in the Gallery of the Court
House: they murmured to each other outside on the pavement: when we
climbed into a hackney coach--Jenny--her mother and sister--the young
fellow called Jack and myself--they followed us--in pairs;--by fours,
talking low and cursing below their breath. After a while they desisted:
but one or two of them still kept up with the coach.
I sent Alice home under charge of Tom. I would get home, I said, as
quickly as I could, after seeing Jenny safely at her own house.
We arrived at the house in Soho Square. It was empty save for some
women-servants, for there was no entertainment that evening. We went
into the small room on the left and lit the candles.
It was then about seven o'clock in the evening and quite dark, as the
time of year was November. Jenny was restless and excited. She went to
the window and looked out. 'The Square is quiet,' she said. 'How long
will it remain quiet?'
The servants brought in some supper. Jenny took a little glass of wine.
She then went away and returned in a plain dress with a cloak and hood.
'I must be ready,' she said, 'to set off on my travels--whither?
Mother'--she turned to the old lady--'you are a witch. Look into the
fire and tell me what you see.'
The old woman filled and drained a glass of Madeira and turned her chair
round. She gazed intently into the red coals.
'I see,' she said, 'a crowd of people. I see a Court. I see the
condemned cell....' She turned away. 'No, Jenny, I will look no more.
'Twas thus I looked in the fire before thy father was taken. Thus and
thus did I see. I will look no longer.'
'Well,' said Doll, 'what will they do next? They know now where you
live, Madame Vallance.'
The old woman sat down and sighed heavily. 'The Black Jack!' she
murmured. 'We shall never see it again.'
Jenny was quiet and grave. 'We have beaten them,' she said. 'They never
suspected that so complete a beating was in store for them. Now comes
our turn--my turn rather.'
'Your turn, Jenny?'
'Yes, Will, my turn. Do you suppose they will forgive us? Why, we have
given evidence against our own people. All St. Giles's trusted my mother
and sister--Could one suspect the Black Jack? Why, because I was a
daughter of the house, all St. Giles's trusted me--and we have betrayed
them! There will be revenge and that quickly.'
Doll nodded expressively. Her mother groaned.
'What kind of revenge?'
Doll nodded her head again and drew a long breath. Her mother groaned
again.
'I do not know, yet. Listen, Will. The people know very well that this
case has been got up by myself. I found out, by my mother's assistance,
those facts about the trials and floggings and imprisonments: I went
into the country and secured the evidence. I brought up the gaolers to
testify to the men's identity. I even went to my husband and
promised--yes, I swore--that I would put him into the conspiracy as well
as the other four if he did not give evidence without saying a word to
Probus. And then I bought my mother out.'
'You bought out your mother?'
''Twas as sweet a business, Sir,' the old woman interrupted, 'as you
ever saw. A matter of three pounds a day takings and two pounds a day
profit.'
'I bought her out,' said Jenny. 'I also compensated her for the contents
of her vaults.'
'Ah!' sighed the old woman. 'There were treasures!'
'The Black Jack is shut up. When the people go there this
evening'--again Doll nodded--'they will find it closed--and they will
wreck the place.'
'And drink up all that's left,' said Doll.
'Let us prevent murder. Jack, you will find it best for your health to
get at far as possible out of London. Take my mother and sister to one
of the taverns in the Borough. There's a waggon or a caravan starts
every morning for some country place or other; never mind where. Go with
them, Jack: stay with them for a while till they are settled. Mother,
you won't be happy unless you can have a tavern somewhere. If you can
find one, Jack will do for you. There you will be safe, I think. St.
Giles's doesn't contain any of our people. But in London you will be
murdered--you and Doll, too--for sure and certain.'
'For sure and certain,' said Doll, grimly.
Jenny gave her mother more money. 'That will carry you into the
country,' she said. 'You can let me know, somehow, where you are. But
take care not to let anyone know who would tell the people here. The
gipsies are your best friends, not the thieves.'
I asked her if it was really necessary to make all these preparations.
'You don't know these people, Will. I do. The one thing to which they
cling is their safety from the law so long as they are among themselves.
There will be wild work this evening. As for me I have under my dress
all my money and all my jewels. I am ready for flight.'
'Why, Jenny, you don't think they will attack you here?'
'I do, indeed. There is nothing more likely. Did you observe a woman
running along Holborn beside the coach? I know that woman. She is the
Captain's girl. Revenge was written on her face--easy to
read--revenge--revenge. She stood beside the doorstep when we came in.
She marked the house. She has gone back to St. Giles's to tell them
where we can be found this evening. But they learned that fact in Court.
Oh! They will come presently.'
'Well, Jenny, let us escape while we can.'
'There are many ways of escape,' she said. 'There is no hurry. We can
pass over the roof of the next house and so into the garrets of the
house beyond. I have proved this way of escape----Oh! Will, I counted
the cost beforehand. Or there is the back door which opens on Hog Lane.
We can get out that way. I am sure they will not think of the back door.
Or it is easy to climb over the garden wall into the next house: there
are plenty of ways. I am not afraid about our escape--if we can keep
them out for a few minutes. But, Jack, you had better take my mother and
sister away at once.'
'No,' said Jack, stoutly. 'Where you are, Madame, there I am.'
'You are a fool, Jack,' she replied with her sweet smile, which made him
more foolish still. 'They will murder you if they can.'
'They shan't murder you, then,' the lad replied, clutching his cudgel.
By the time we finished supper and held this discourse it was close upon
eight.
'Will,' said Jenny, 'you and Jack had better barricade the door. It is a
strong door but even oak will give way. Take the card-tables and pile
them up.'
The card-tables were thin slight things with curved legs all gilt and
lacquer. But the long table was a heavy mahogany thing. We took out
some of the pieces by which it was lengthened and closed it up. Then we
carried it out to the hall and placed it against the door: the length of
the door filled the breadth of the hall and jammed in the boards until
it seemed as if it would bear any amount of pressure from without. We
piled the smaller tables one above the other behind the large table: if
the mob did get in, they would be encumbered for awhile among the legs
of so many tables. This was the only attempt we could make at fortifying
the house: the lower windows were protected by the iron railings
outside.
'Will,' said Jenny, 'we have made the door safe. But Lord! what is to
prevent their breaking down the railings and entering by the area? Or
why should they not bring a ladder and force their way at the first
floor?'
'Would they be so determined?'
'They scent blood. They are like the carrion crow. They mean blood and
pillage. The latter they will have. Not the former.'
At this point we heard a low grumbling noise in the distance, which
became the roar of many voices.
'They are already at the Black Jack,' said Jenny. 'I should like to see
what they are doing. Come with me, Will. It is too dark for anyone to
recognise me, and there will be a great crowd. All St. Giles's will be
out to see the wreck of the Black Jack.'
She drew her hood over her head which in a measure hid her face, and
taking my hand, she led me through the garden and so out by the back
door into Hog Lane. The place, always quiet, was deserted and, besides,
was nearly pitch dark, having no lamps in it.
Jenny's house--the Assembly Rooms of Soho Square--stood at the corner of
Sutton Street, and with its gardens extended back into Hog Lane. Nearly
opposite Sutton Street, a little lower down, the short street called
Denmark Street ran from Hog Lane into St. Giles's High Street opposite
the Church. The Black Jack stood opposite to the Church.
When we got to Denmark Street we took the north side, because there were
fewer people there. Yet the crowd was gathering fast. We stood at the
corner of the street at the East and where we could see what was going
on and be ready to escape as quickly as possible in case of necessity.
A company of men with whom were a good many women and a few boys, were
besieging the dark and deserted Black Jack. They were a company apart
acting by themselves without any assistance from the crowd, which looked
on approvingly and applauded. They neither asked for, nor would they
accept, assistance. If any man from the outside offered to join them, he
was roughly ordered back. 'It is their revenge, Will,' said Jenny. 'They
will have no one with them to join in their own business.' Their
resolution and the quiet way with which they acted--for the roars and
shouting we heard did not proceed from the company of revenge but from
the crowd that followed them--struck one with terror as if we were
contemplating the irresistible decrees of Fate. They battered at the
doors: as no one answered, they broke in the doors; but first with a
volley of stones they broke every window in the house.
'Poor mother!' said Jenny. ''Twould break her heart. But she will lose
nothing. I bought her out. It is the landlord who will suffer. Now they
have found candles: they light up; see, they are going all over the
house in search of the landlady.' We saw lights in the rooms one after
the other. 'They will not find her: nor her money: nor anything that is
valuable. It is all gone, gentlemen: all provided for and stowed away in
a safer place. This is not a house where a woman who values her throat
should be found, after to-day's work. See--now, they have made up their
minds that no one is left in the house. What next? Will they set fire to
it?'
No: they did not set fire to the house. They proceeded to break up
everything: all the furniture: the beds, chairs and tables and to throw
fragments out of windows into the open space below where some of them
collected everything and made a bonfire. When the house was emptied they
began to bring out the bottles and to haul up the casks out of the
cellars: upon this there was a rush of the crowd from the outside:
strange as it may appear the company of revenge were going to break the
bottles and to set the casks running. But the mob rushed in: there was
fighting for a few minutes: someone blew a whistle and the rioters drew
apart, and stood together before the house. Then one of them; their
leader, spoke.
'This is the revenge of St. Giles's on the landlady of the Black Jack.
Drink up all her casks and all her bottles, and be damned to ye!'
The people that rushed upon the casks were like ravenous beasts of prey:
you would have thought that they had never had their fill of strong
drink before: indeed for such people it is impossible to have their fill
of strong drink unless insensibility means satiety. They set the casks
running: they made cups of their hands: they drank with their mouths
from the taps: they filled empty bottles: they fought for the full
bottles: the place was covered with broken glass: their faces were
bleeding with cuts from broken bottles: the bonfire lifted its fierce
flame hissing and roaring: at the open windows of houses hard-by women
looked on, shrieking and applauding: some, within the railings of the
Church, looked on as from a place of safety: as the flames lit up their
pale faces, they might have been the ghosts of the dead, called out of
their quiet graves to see what was going on.
'It is not their intention to burn down the Black Jack,' said Jenny.
'Then there will be a new landlady, and the Thieves' Kitchen will go on
again.'
The leader of the Company blew his whistle, and the men fell into some
kind of line.
'My turn now,' said Jenny. 'Let us fly, Will. Let us fly back again.'
We ran down Denmark Street into the quiet, dark Hog's Lane before the
Company reached the place. We ran through the garden door and locked it.
Then we went back to the house. The old woman was half drunk by this
time and half asleep. Doll was sitting upright, waiting. Jack stood by
the door.
'They are coming,' said Jenny. 'They have sacked the Black Jack, Doll.
They would have murdered you had you been in the house: they have broken
all the furniture and made a bonfire of it: and they have brought out
all the liquor. The people are drinking it up now--beer and rum and
gin--and wine. Well, you have lost nothing, Doll--nothing at all. Now
they are coming here.' She rang the bell, and called the servants. There
were six of them. 'There is a mob on their way to this house,' she told
them. 'They are going to wreck the place and to murder me, if they can.
You had better get out of the house as soon as you can. Put together all
that you can carry, and go out of the back way. You can go to one of
the inns in Holborn for the night: if any of you have the courage to
venture through the streets of Soho, you might go to the Horse Guards
and call the soldiers to save the house. Now be quick. To-morrow I will
pay you your wages.'
The women looked astonished, as well they might. What sort of company
was Madame keeping? There was the old woman bemused with drink: there
was the young country man: who were they? What did it mean?
'The mob are coming to-night, Madame?'
'They are coming now. They will be here in a few minutes. If you would
escape, go put your things together and fly by the garden door.'
They looked at each other: without a word they retired: and I suppose
they got away immediately, because we saw no more of them.
And then we heard a steady tramp of feet along Sutton Street.
'They are here,' said Jenny.
We heard the feet, but there was no shouting. They marched in a silence
which was more threatening than any noise. I closed the wooden shutters
of the room. It was as well not to show any lights.
'I suppose,' said Doll, 'that you will give us time to escape. Otherwise
we shall all four have our throats cut, and perhaps this gentleman too,
for whom you've taken all this trouble--and him with a wife of his own.
He'd better go back to her.'
'Yes, Doll,' Jenny replied meekly, without replying to the suggestion.
'You shall have time to escape.'
They drew up, apparently in very good order before the house, without
any shouting, because most of the crowd that had followed them to the
Black Jack were still on the spot drinking what they could get in the
general scramble. There were some, however, who came with them and hung
outside and behind the company of revenge who began to assemble and to
shout 'Huzzah' after the way of the Londoners. But I believe they knew
not what was intended save that it was revenge of some kind: there would
most certainly be the breaking of windows and the smashing of doors:
there would be the pleasant spectacle of revenge with more bonfires of
broken furniture: perhaps more casks and bottles of strong drink: in
all probability women would be turned out into the street with every
kind of insult and ill-usage, as had happened, indeed, only a week
before in the Strand when a company of sailors wrecked a house and
turned the women out of doors with blows and curses.
First they knocked loudly at the door, shouting for the door to be
opened or it would be the worse for everybody inside. Then they pushed
the door which yielded not.
'They will not force the door easily,' said Jenny. 'Who will run
downstairs and see that the area door is secure?'
I volunteered for this duty. The kitchen windows were provided with
strong iron bars which would keep the people off for a time: the area
door was strong and was barred within: for further precaution I locked
and barred the kitchen door and a strong door at the head of the
staircase: we should thus gain time.
Crash--smash--crash! Were you ever in a house while the mob outside were
breaking the windows? Perhaps not. 'Tis like a field of battle with the
rattle of musquetry. At one moment half the windows in the house were
broken: at the next moment the other half went: and still
crash--crash--the stones flew into the windows tearing out what little
glass remained.
Then there was silence again.
'Our time is nearly up,' said Jenny. 'Doll, wake up mother. Tie her hat
under her chin, wrap her handkerchief round her neck--so. What will they
do next? Jack, are you afraid to reconnoitre? Go up to the first floor,
and look out of window.'
I went with him. The stones were still flying thickly through the
windows. We made our way along the wall till we came to the window. Then
we went on hands and knees and crept to the window. I wrapped one hand
in a curtain and held it before my face while I looked out.
They were lighting torches and conferring together. By the torchlight I
could make out their faces. They were of the type which I had had a
recent opportunity of studying in Newgate: the type which means both the
hunter and the hunted. It is a cruel and hard type: a relentless type:
the faces all had the same expression--it meant 'Revenge.' 'We have been
betrayed,' said the faces, 'by our friends, by the very people we
trusted: we will have revenge. As we have sacked the Black Jack, so we
will sack the Assembly Rooms. As we would have killed the landlady of
the Black Jack: so we will kill her daughter, the Orange Girl, if we
find her.' That is what the faces seemed to say.
They were conferring what to do next. One of them I could see, advocated
breaking down the iron railings: but they had no instruments: another
wanted to use a battering ram against the front door but they had no
battering-ram: a third proposed a ladder and entering by the first floor
windows. But they had no ladder.
While they were thus debating a man came into the Square who brought a
ladder for them. There was no further hesitation. 'Come, Jack,' I said.
'There is no time to be lost: we must get away as quickly as possible.'
'You go on,' said Jack, 'I will follow.'
He waited. The ladder was raised to the window at which he watched. A
fellow ran up quickly. Jack sprang to his feet, threw up the sash and
hurled him headlong off the ladder. The poor wretch fell on the spikes.
He groaned but only once. He was killed. There was silence for a moment.
Then there arose a mighty scream--I say it was like the screaming of a
woman. The mob had tasted blood. It was their own--but it was blood.
They yelled and roared. Some of them ran to hold the ladder while a
dozen men ran up. Jack prudently retired, but locked the door behind
him.
'I believe I have killed him,' he said quickly. 'The one who ran up the
ladder. I think he fell on the spikes.'
'Come,' said Jenny. 'We must go at once if we mean to go at all. Wake up
mother again, Doll. Farewell to my greatness. Will, I grudge not any
cost--remember--whatever it is. Take me with you, to your own home for
awhile, till I am able to look round again. These devils! they are
overhead, I hear them falling over the furniture. Pray that they break
their shins. Come, everybody.'
She blew out the candles and led the way. The old woman half awake was
led out by Jack and Doll. I followed last. As we passed out into the
garden, we could hear the cursing of the fellows overhead and the
smashing of the door which Jack had locked.
In Sutton Street, over the garden wall, everything seemed quiet: that
is, there were no footsteps as of a crowd. Yet in the Square the crowd
roared and yelled, and from St. Giles's was still heard the clamour of
the people fighting over the drink. We looked out of the garden door
cautiously. No one was in Hog Lane, which was as deserted as a city in
the Desert. We closed the door and turned to the right, and so making
our way by streets which I knew well, either by day or by night, we got
to St. Martin's Lane and then to Charing Cross where we found a hackney
coach.
'Jenny,' I said in the coach, taking her hand. 'The evening spoils the
day. All this you have suffered for my sake. What can I say? What can I
feel?'
'Oh! Will, what are a few sticks of furniture and curtains compared to
your safety and to Alice's happiness? I care not a straw. I am ruined,
it is true; but--for the first time in my life, I am thankful for it--I
am a married woman. My debts will all be transferred to Matthew. Will!
Think of it! The first effect of the victory will be to make Matthew a
bankrupt at once. After what he owned in Court, after he receives the
news of my debts: there can be no delay. Henceforth, my dear Will, you
will be safe from Mr. Probus.'
I was, indeed, to be safe from him, but in a way which she could not
expect.
'Meantime,' she added, with a sigh, 'they have not done with me, yet.'
'Why, what further harm can they do you?'
'I know not. You asked the same question before. There is no end to the
ways of a revengeful spirit. They will murder me, perhaps: or they will
contrive some other way.'
'Then go out of their reach.'
'The only place of safety for me is with my own folks. I should be safe
in a gipsy camp. They have their camps everywhere, but I do not want to
live with them. No, Will. I shall remain. After all, the revenge of
people like these soon passes away. They will wreck my house to-night.
That very likely will seem to them enough. I should have thought so, but
for the things that mother saw in the coals. She is a witch, indeed. I
say, mother, you are a proper witch.' But the good lady was fast asleep.
We left her with her daughter Doll and the young fellow they called
Jack, at the White Hart Inn. It appeared that a waggon was going on in
the morning to Horsham in Sussex. They might as well stay at Horsham for
a time as anywhere else. There was very little fear that the St.
Giles's company of revenge would make any further inquiries about them.
So they left us and I saw the pair no more--and cannot tell you what
became of them in the end. As for the young fellow, you will hear more
about him. The hackney coach took us to our cottage on the Bank where,
after so many emotions and surprises, I, for one, slept well.
Let us return to the house in the Square. The rioters finding no one
within, quickly pulled away the barricade of the front door and threw it
open. Then the work of wrecking the place began. When you remember that
supper was sometimes provided for two thousand people, you will
understand the prodigious quantity of plates, dishes, knives, forks,
tables, benches, and things that were stored in the pantries and
kitchens. You have heard of the hangings, the curtains, the candelabra,
the sconces, the musical instruments, the plants, the vases, the
paintings, the coloured lamps, the card-tables, the candlesticks, the
stores of candles--in a word the immense collection of all kinds
necessary for carrying on the entertainments. It is true that the
suppers were cooked at a tavern and sent in, cold; but they had to be
served in dishes and provided with plates. There was no wine to speak of
in the house, because the wine was sent in for the night from the tavern
which supplied it. Everything in the house was broken. The company of
revenge did its work thoroughly. Everything was broken: everything was
thrown out of the windows: the centre of the Square was made the site of
a huge bonfire which, I believe, must be remembered yet: all the
furniture was piled up on this bonfire: the flames ascended to the
skies: that of the Black Jack was a mere boy's bonfire compared to this,
while the piles of broken glass and china rendered walking in the Square
dangerous for many a day to come.
You have heard that Jenny recommended her women-servants to call out the
soldiers. One of them dared to run through the dark streets to the Horse
Guards. Half an hour, however, elapsed before the soldiers could be
turned out. At last they started with muskets loaded and bayonets fixed:
when they arrived, the work was nearly finished: it would have been
better for poor Jenny had it been completely finished, as you will
presently discover: the furniture was all broken and, with the hangings,
curtains and carpets, was burning on the bonfire. The soldiers drew up
before the door: the mob began throwing stones: the soldiers fired into
them. Four or five fell--of whom two were killed on the spot: the rest
were wounded. The mob soon ran away. Some of the soldiers proceeded to
search the house: they found a dozen or twenty fellows engaged in
smashing the mirrors and the candelabra in the dancing-hall: they
secured them: and then, the mob all gone, and the bonfire dying away
they left a guard of four or five and marched back with their prisoners
and the wounded men. In the morning the soldiers fastened up the broken
door somehow and left the empty house. Alas! If only the mob had been
able to fire the house and to burn down and gut the place from cellar to
garret.
This was the first act of revenge on the part of St. Giles's. There was
to be another and a more deadly act.