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
disturbance had attained to such a formidable height, and the rioters had grown,
with impunity, to be so audacious, that the sight of this great force,
continually augmented by new arrivals, instead of operating as a check,
stimulated 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.
All yesterday, and on this day likewise, the commander-in-chief endeavoured
to arouse the magistrates to a sense of their duty, and in particular the Lord
Mayor, who was the faintest-hearted 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 the men remained in the open street,
fruitlessly for any good purpose, 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 authorities 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 loth 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 man 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.
It was about six o'clock in the evening, when a vast mob poured into
Lincoln's Inn Fields by every avenue, and divided--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 parry, 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.
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 innocent. 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 parry of boys whose fellow-pickpockets 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 perhaps--God knows--with all who were without hope, and
wretched.
Old swords, and pistols without ball or powder; sledge-hammers, knives, axes,
saws, and weapons pillaged from the butchers' shops; a 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 taken from
crippled beggars in the streets; composed their arms. When all was ready, Hugh
and Dennis, with Simon Tappertit between them, led the way. Roaring and chafing
like an angry sea, the crowd pressed after them.
Instead of going straight down Holborn to the jail, as all expected, their
leaders took the way to Clerkenwell, and pouring down a quiet street, halted
before a locksmith's house--the Golden Key.
'Beat at the door,' cried Hugh to the men about him. 'We want one of his
craft to-night. Beat it in, if no one answers.'
The shop was shut. Both door and shutters were of a strong and sturdy kind,
and they knocked without effect. But the impatient crowd raising a cry of 'Set
fire to the house!' and torches being passed to the front, an upper window was
thrown open, and the stout old locksmith stood before them.
'What now, you villains!' he demanded. 'Where is my daughter?'
'Ask no questions of us, old man,' retorted Hugh, waving his comrades to be
silent, 'but come down, and bring the tools of your trade. We want you.'
'Want me!' cried the locksmith, glancing at the regimental dress he wore:
'Ay, and if some that I could name possessed the hearts of mice, ye should have
had me long ago. Mark me, my lad--and you about him do the same. There are a
score among ye whom I see now and know, who are dead men from this hour. Begone!
and rob an undertaker's while you can! You'll want some coffins before long.'
'Will you come down?' cried Hugh.
'Will you give me my daughter, ruffian?' cried the locksmith.
'I know nothing of her,' Hugh rejoined. 'Burn the door!'
'Stop!' cried the locksmith, in a voice that made them falter-- presenting,
as he spoke, a gun. 'Let an old man do that. You can spare him better.'
The young fellow who held the light, and who was stooping down before the
door, rose hastily at these words, and fell back. The locksmith ran his eye
along the upturned faces, and kept the weapon levelled at the threshold of his
house. It had no other rest than his shoulder, but was as steady as the house
itself.
'Let the man who does it, take heed to his prayers,' he said firmly; 'I warn
him.'
Snatching a torch from one who stood near him, Hugh was stepping forward with
an oath, when he was arrested by a shrill and piercing shriek, and, looking
upward, saw a fluttering garment on the house- top.
There was another shriek, and another, and then a shrill voice cried, 'Is
Simmun below!' At the same moment a lean neck was stretched over the parapet,
and Miss Miggs, indistinctly seen in the gathering gloom of evening, screeched
in a frenzied manner, 'Oh! dear gentlemen, let me hear Simmuns's answer from his
own lips. Speak to me, Simmun. Speak to me!'
Mr Tappertit, who was not at all flattered by this compliment, looked up, and
bidding her hold her peace, ordered her to come down and open the door, for they
wanted her master, and would take no denial.
'Oh good gentlemen!' cried Miss Miggs. 'Oh my own precious, precious
Simmun--'
'Hold your nonsense, will you!' retorted Mr Tappertit; 'and come down and
open the door.--G. Varden, drop that gun, or it will be worse for you.'
'Don't mind his gun,' screamed Miggs. 'Simmun and gentlemen, I poured a mug
of table-beer right down the barrel.'
The crowd gave a loud shout, which was followed by a roar of laughter.
'It wouldn't go off, not if you was to load it up to the muzzle,' screamed
Miggs. 'Simmun and gentlemen, I'm locked up in the front attic, through the
little door on the right hand when you think you've got to the very top of the
stairs--and up the flight of corner steps, being careful not to knock your heads
against the rafters, and not to tread on one side in case you should fall into
the two-pair bedroom through the lath and plasture, which do not bear, but the
contrairy. Simmun and gentlemen, I've been locked up here for safety, but my
endeavours has always been, and always will be, to be on the right side--the
blessed side and to prenounce the Pope of Babylon, and all her inward and her
outward workings, which is Pagin. My sentiments is of little consequences, I
know,' cried Miggs, with additional shrillness, 'for my positions is but a
servant, and as sich, of humilities, still I gives expressions to my feelings,
and places my reliances on them which entertains my own opinions!'
Without taking much notice of these outpourings of Miss Miggs after she had
made her first announcement in relation to the gun, the crowd raised a ladder
against the window where the locksmith stood, and notwithstanding that he
closed, and fastened, and defended it manfully, soon forced an entrance by
shivering the glass and breaking in the frames. After dealing a few stout blows
about him, he found himself defenceless, in the midst of a furious crowd, which
overflowed the room and softened off in a confused heap of faces at the door and
window.
They were very wrathful with him (for he had wounded two men), and even
called out to those in front, to bring him forth and hang him on a lamp-post.
But Gabriel was quite undaunted, and looked from Hugh and Dennis, who held him
by either arm, to Simon Tappertit, who confronted him.
'You have robbed me of my daughter,' said the locksmith, 'who is far dearer
to me than my life; and you may take my life, if you will. I bless God that I
have been enabled to keep my wife free of this scene; and that He has made me a
man who will not ask mercy at such hands as yours.'
'And a wery game old gentleman you are,' said Mr Dennis, approvingly; 'and
you express yourself like a man. What's the odds, brother, whether it's a
lamp-post to-night, or a feather- bed ten year to come, eh?'
The locksmith glanced at him disdainfully, but returned no other answer.
'For my part,' said the hangman, who particularly favoured the lamp-post
suggestion, 'I honour your principles. They're mine exactly. In such sentiments
as them,' and here he emphasised his discourse with an oath, 'I'm ready to meet
you or any man halfway.-- Have you got a bit of cord anywheres handy? Don't put
yourself out of the way, if you haven't. A handkecher will do.'
'Don't be a fool, master,' whispered Hugh, seizing Varden roughly by the
shoulder; 'but do as you're bid. You'll soon hear what you're wanted for. Do
it!'
'I'll do nothing at your request, or that of any scoundrel here,' returned
the locksmith. 'If you want any service from me, you may spare yourselves the
pains of telling me what it is. I tell you, beforehand, I'll do nothing for
you.'
Mr Dennis was so affected by this constancy on the part of the staunch old
man, that he protested--almost with tears in his eyes-- that to baulk his
inclinations would be an act of cruelty and hard dealing to which he, for one,
never could reconcile his conscience. The gentleman, he said, had avowed in so
many words that he was ready for working off; such being the case, he considered
it their duty, as a civilised and enlightened crowd, to work him off. It was not
often, he observed, that they had it in their power to accommodate themselves to
the wishes of those from whom they had the misfortune to differ. Having now
found an individual who expressed a desire which they could reasonably indulge
(and for himself he was free to confess that in his opinion that desire did
honour to his feelings), he hoped they would decide to accede to his proposition
before going any further. It was an experiment which, skilfully and dexterously
performed, would be over in five minutes, with great comfort and satisfaction to
all parties; and though it did not become him (Mr Dennis) to speak well of
himself he trusted he might be allowed to say that he had practical knowledge of
the subject, and, being naturally of an obliging and friendly disposition, would
work the gentleman off with a deal of pleasure.
These remarks, which were addressed in the midst of a frightful din and
turmoil to those immediately about him, were received with great favour; not so
much, perhaps, because of the hangman's eloquence, as on account of the
locksmith's obstinacy. Gabriel was in imminent peril, and he knew it; but he
preserved a steady silence; and would have done so, if they had been debating
whether they should roast him at a slow fire.
As the hangman spoke, there was some stir and confusion on the ladder; and
directly he was silent--so immediately upon his holding his peace, that the
crowd below had no time to learn what he had been saying, or to shout in
response--some one at the window cried:
'He has a grey head. He is an old man: Don't hurt him!'
The locksmith turned, with a start, towards the place from which the words
had come, and looked hurriedly at the people who were hanging on the ladder and
clinging to each other.
'Pay no respect to my grey hair, young man,' he said, answering the voice and
not any one he saw. 'I don't ask it. My heart is green enough to scorn and
despise every man among you, band of robbers that you are!'
This incautious speech by no means tended to appease the ferocity of the
crowd. They cried again to have him brought out; and it would have gone hard
with the honest locksmith, but that Hugh reminded them, in answer, that they
wanted his services, and must have them.
'So, tell him what we want,' he said to Simon Tappertit, 'and quickly. And
open your ears, master, if you would ever use them after to-night.'
Gabriel folded his arms, which were now at liberty, and eyed his old
'prentice in silence.
'Lookye, Varden,' said Sim, 'we're bound for Newgate.'
'I know you are,' returned the locksmith. 'You never said a truer word than
that.'
'To burn it down, I mean,' said Simon, 'and force the gates, and set the
prisoners at liberty. You helped to make the lock of the great door.'
'I did,' said the locksmith. 'You owe me no thanks for that--as you'll find
before long.'
'Maybe,' returned his journeyman, 'but you must show us how to force it.'
'Must I!'
'Yes; for you know, and I don't. You must come along with us, and pick it
with your own hands.'
'When I do,' said the locksmith quietly, 'my hands shall drop off at the
wrists, and you shall wear them, Simon Tappertit, on your shoulders for
epaulettes.'
'We'll see that,' cried Hugh, interposing, as the indignation of the crowd
again burst forth. 'You fill a basket with the tools he'll want, while I bring
him downstairs. Open the doors below, some of you. And light the great captain,
others! Is there no business afoot, my lads, that you can do nothing but stand
and grumble?'
They looked at one another, and quickly dispersing, swarmed over the house,
plundering and breaking, according to their custom, and carrying off such
articles of value as happened to please their fancy. They had no great length of
time for these proceedings, for the basket of tools was soon prepared and slung
over a man's shoulders. The preparations being now completed, and everything
ready for the attack, those who were pillaging and destroying in the other rooms
were called down to the workshop. They were about to issue forth, when the man
who had been last upstairs, stepped forward, and asked if the young woman in the
garret (who was making a terrible noise, he said, and kept on screaming without
the least cessation) was to be released?
For his own part, Simon Tappertit would certainly have replied in the
negative, but the mass of his companions, mindful of the good service she had
done in the matter of the gun, being of a different opinion, he had nothing for
it but to answer, Yes. The man, accordingly, went back again to the rescue, and
presently returned with Miss Miggs, limp and doubled up, and very damp from much
weeping.
As the young lady had given no tokens of consciousness on their way
downstairs, the bearer reported her either dead or dying; and being at some loss
what to do with her, was looking round for a convenient bench or heap of ashes
on which to place her senseless form, when she suddenly came upon her feet by
some mysterious means, thrust back her hair, stared wildly at Mr Tappertit,
cried, 'My Simmuns's life is not a wictim!' and dropped into his arms with such
promptitude that he staggered and reeled some paces back, beneath his lovely
burden.
'Oh bother!' said Mr Tappertit. 'Here. Catch hold of her, somebody. Lock her
up again; she never ought to have been let out.'
'My Simmun!' cried Miss Miggs, in tears, and faintly. 'My for ever, ever
blessed Simmun!'
'Hold up, will you,' said Mr Tappertit, in a very unresponsive tone, 'I'll
let you fall if you don't. What are you sliding your feet off the ground for?'
'My angel Simmuns!' murmured Miggs--'he promised--'
'Promised! Well, and I'll keep my promise,' answered Simon, testily. 'I mean
to provide for you, don't I? Stand up!'
'Where am I to go? What is to become of me after my actions of this night!'
cried Miggs. 'What resting-places now remains but in the silent tombses!'
'I wish you was in the silent tombses, I do,' cried Mr Tappertit, 'and boxed
up tight, in a good strong one. Here,' he cried to one of the bystanders, in
whose ear he whispered for a moment: 'Take her off, will you. You understand
where?'
The fellow nodded; and taking her in his arms, notwithstanding her broken
protestations, and her struggles (which latter species of opposition, involving
scratches, was much more difficult of resistance), carried her away. They who
were in the house poured out into the street; the locksmith was taken to the
head of the crowd, and required to walk between his two conductors; the whole
body was put in rapid motion; and without any shouts or noise they bore down
straight on Newgate, and halted in a dense mass before the prison-gate.
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