glorious daylight. Hush! I hear the tread of distant feet. Rely on me..

As soon as I do. I should hope, to-morrow. They are coming to say that our time for talk is over. I hear the jingling of the keys. Not another word of this just now, or they may overhear us. »

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As he said these words, the lock was turned, and one of the prison turnkeys appearing at the door, announced that it was time for visitors to leave the jail.

"So soon!" said Stagg, meekly. But it can't be helped. Cheer up, friend. This mistake will soon be set at rest, and then you are a man again! If this charitable gentleman will lead a blind. mán (who has nothing in return but prayers) to the prison-porch, and set him with his face towards the west, he will do a worthy deed. Thank you, good sir. I thank you very kindly.

So saying, and pausing for an instant at the door to turn his grinning face towards his friend, he departed.

When the officer had seen him to the porch, he returned, and again unlocking and unbarring the door of the cell, set it wide open, informing its immate that he was at liberty to walk in the adjacent yard, if he thought proper, for an hour.

The prisoner answered with a sullen nod, and being left alone again, sat brooding over what he had heard, and pondering upon the hopes the recent conversation had awakened; gazing abstractedly, the while he did so, on the light without, and watching the shadows thrown by one wall on another, and on the stone-paved ground.

It was a dull, square yard, made cold and gloomy by high walls, and seeming to chill the very sunlight. The stone, so bare, and rough, and obdurate, filled even him with longing thoughts of meadow-land and trees; and with a burning wish to be at liberty. As he looked, he rose, and leaning against the doorpost, gazed up at the bright blue sky, smiling even on that dreary home of crime. He seemed, for a moment, to remember lying on his back in some sweet-scented place, and gazing at it through moving branches, long ago...

VOL. II.

44

His attention was suddenly attracted by a clanking sound→→ he knew what it was, for he had startled himself by making the same noise in walking to the door. Presently a voice began to sing, and he saw the shadow of a figure on the pavement. It stopped was silent all at once, as though the person for a moment had forgotten where he was but soon remembered and so, with the same clanking noise, the shadow disappeared.:

He walked out into the court and paced it to and fro; startling the echoes, as he went, with the harsh jangling of his fetters. There was a door near his, which, like his, stood ajar.

He had not taken half-a-dozen turns up and down the yard, when, standing still to observe this door, he heard the clanking sound again. A face looked out of the grated window→ he saw it very dimly, for the cell was dark and the bars were heavy and directly afterwards, a man appeared, and came towards him.

For the sense of loneliness he had, he might have been in the jail a year. Made eager by the hope of companionship, he quickened his pace, and hastened to meet the man half way

.. What was this! His son!

They stood face to face, staring at each other. He shrinking and cowed, despite himself; Barnaby struggling with his imperfect memory, and wondering where he had seen that face before. He was not uncertain long, for suddenly he laid hands upon him, and striving to bear him to the ground, cried :

Ah! I know! You are the robber! »

He said nothing in reply at first, but held down his head, and struggled with him silently. Finding the younger man too strong for him, he raised his face, looked close into his eyes, and said,

God knows what magic the name had for his ears; but Barnaby released his hold, fell back, and looked at him aghast.

Suddenly he sprang towards him, put his arms about his neck, and pressed his head against his cheek.

Yes, yes, he was; he was sure he was. But where had he been so long, and why had he left his mother by herself, or worse than by herself, with her poor foolish boy? And had she really been as happy as they said? And where was she? Was she near there? She was not happy now, and he in jail? Ah, no

Not a word was said in answer; but Grip croaked loudly, and hopped about them, round and round, as if enclosing them in a magic circle, and invoking all the powers of mischief.

CHAPTER THE THIRTY-SEVENTH.

4

During the whole of this day, every regiment in or near the metropolis was on duty in one or other part of the town; and the regulars and militia, in obedience to the orders which were sent to every barrack and station within twenty-four hours' journey, began to pour in by all the roads. But the disturbances had attained to such a formidable height, and the rioters had grown, with impunity, to be so audacious and so daring, that the sight of this great force, continually augmented by new arrivals, instead of operating as a check, mulated them to outrages of greater hardihood than any they had yet committed; and helped to kindle a flame in London, the like of which had never been beheld, even in its ancient and rebellious times.

sti

All yesterday, and on this day likewise, the commander-inchief endeavoured to arouse the magistrates to a sense of their duty, and in particular the Lord Mayor, who was the faintesthearted and most timid of them all. With this object, large bodies of the soldiery were several times despatched to the Mansion House to await his orders but as he could, by no threats or persuasions, be induced to give any, and as they remained in the open street, fruitlessly for any good purpose,

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and thrivingly for a very bad one, these laudable attempts did harm rather than good. For the crowd, becoming speedily acquainted with the Lord Mayor's temper, did not fail to take advantage of it, by boasting that even the civil authori ties were opposed to the Papists, and could not find it in their hearts to molest those who were guilty of no other offence. These vaunts they took care to make within the hearing of the soldiers; and they, being naturally loath to quarrel with the people, received their advances kindly enough: answering, when they were asked if they desired to fire upon their countrymen, No, they would be damned if they did; and showing much honest simplicity, and good-nature. ` The feeling that the military were No Popery men, and were ripe for disobeying orders and joining the mob, soon became very prevalent in consequence. Rumours of their disaffection, and of their leaning towards the popular cause, spread from mouth to mouth with astonishing rapidity; and whenever they were drawn up idly in the streets or squares, there was sure to be a crowd about them, cheering, and shaking hands, and treating them with a great show of confidence and affection.

By this time, the crowd was everywhere; all concealment and disguise were laid aside, and they pervaded the whole town. If any among them wanted money, he had but to knock at the door of a dwelling-house, or walk into a shop, and demand it in the rioters' name; and his demand was instantly complied with. The peaceable citizens being afraid to lay hands upon them, singly and alone, it may be easily supposed that when gathered together in bodies, they were perfectly secure from interruption. They assembled in the streets, traversed them at their will and pleasure, and publicly concerted their plans. Business was quite suspended; the greater part of the shops were closed; most of the houses displayed a blue flag in token of their adherence to the popular side; and even the Jews in Houndsditch, Whitechapel, and those quarters, wrote upon their doors or window-shutters This House is a True Protestant. The crowd was the law, and never was the law held in greater dread, or more implicitly obeyed.'i

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46.

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BARNABY RUDGE.

349 It was about six o'clock in the evening, when aivast! mob poured into Lincoln's Inn Fields by every avenue, and divid ed-evidently in pursuance of a previous design-into several parties. It must not be understood that this arrangement was known to the whole crowd," but that it was the work of a few leaders, who, mingling with the men as they came upon the ground, and calling to them to fall into this or that par ty, effected it as rapidly as if it had been determined on by a council of the whole number, and every man had known his place.

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It was perfectly notorious to the assemblage that the largest body, which comprehended about two-thirds of the whole, was designed for the attack on Newgate. It comprehended all the rioters who had been conspicuous in any of their former proceedings; all those whom they recommended as daring hands and fit for the work; all those whose companions had been taken in the riots; and a great number of people who were relatives or friends of felons in the jail. This last class included, not only the most desperate and utterly abandoned villains in London, but some who were comparatively inno cent. There was more than one woman there, disguised in man's attire, and bent upon the rescue of a child or brother! There were the two sons of a man who lay under › sentence of death, and who was to be executed along with three others! on the next day but one. There was a great party of boys whose fellow pick-pockets were in the prison'; and at the skirts of all, a score of miserable women, outcasts from the world, seeking to release some other fallen creature as miserable as themselves, or moved by a general sympathy perhapsGod knows-with all who were without hope, and wretched.”

Old swords, and pistols without ball or powder;" sledgehammers, knives, axes, saws, and weapons pillaged from the butchers' shops ;1 ́al forest of iron bars and wooden clubs; long ladders for scaling the walls, each carried on the shoulders of a dozen men", "lighted torches; tow smeared with pitch, and tar, and brimstone; staves roughly plucked from fence and paling and even crutches torn from crippled beggars in the streets; composed their arms. When all was ready, Hugh