During the whole of this day, every regiment in or near themetropolis was on duty in one or other part of the town; and theregulars and militia, in obedience to the orders which were sent toevery barrack and station within twenty-four hours" journey, beganto pour in by all the roads. But the disturbance had attained tosuch a formidable height, and the rioters had grown, with impunity,to be so audacious, that the sight of this great force, continuallyaugmented by new arrivals, instead of operating as a check,stimulated them to outrages of greater hardihood than any they hadyet committed; and helped to kindle a flame in London, the like ofwhich had never been beheld, even in its ancient and rebellioustimes.
All yesterday, and on this day likewise, the commander-in-chiefendeavoured to arouse the magistrates to a sense of their duty, andin particular the Lord Mayor, who was the faintest-hearted and mosttimid of them all. With this object, large bodies of the soldierywere several times despatched to the Mansion House to await hisorders: but as he could, by no threats or persuasions, be inducedto give any, and as the men remained in the open street,fruitlessly for any good purpose, and thrivingly for a very badone; these laudable attempts did harm rather than good. For thecrowd, becoming speedily acquainted with the Lord Mayor"s temper,did not fail to take advantage of it by boasting that even thecivil authorities were opposed to the Papists, and could not findit in their hearts to molest those who were guilty of no otheroffence. These vaunts they took care to make within the hearing ofthe soldiers; and they, being naturally loth to quarrel with thepeople, received their advances kindly enough: answering, whenthey were asked if they desired to fire upon their countrymen, "No,they would be damned if they did;" and showing much honestsimplicity and good nature. The feeling that the military were No-Popery men, and were ripe for disobeying orders and joining themob, soon became very prevalent in consequence. Rumours of theirdisaffection, and of their leaning towards the popular cause,spread from mouth to mouth with astonishing rapidity; and wheneverthey were drawn up idly in the streets or squares, there was sureto be a crowd about them, cheering and shaking hands, and treatingthem with a great show of confidence and affection.
By this time, the crowd was everywhere; all concealment anddisguise were laid aside, and they pervaded the whole town. Ifany man among them wanted money, he had but to knock at the door ofa dwelling-house, or walk into a shop, and demand it in the riotersname; and his demand was instantly complied with. The peaceablecitizens being afraid to lay hands upon them, singly and alone, itmay be easily supposed that when gathered together in bodies, theywere perfectly secure from interruption. They assembled in thestreets, traversed them at their will and pleasure, and publiclyconcerted their plans. Business was quite suspended; the greaterpart of the shops were closed; most of the houses displayed a blueflag in token of their adherence to the popular side; and even theJews in Houndsditch, Whitechapel, and those quarters, wrote upontheir 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 pouredinto Lincoln"s Inn Fields by every avenue, and divided--evidentlyin pursuance of a previous design--into several parties. It mustnot be understood that this arrangement was known to the wholecrowd, but that it was the work of a few leaders; who, minglingwith the men as they came upon the ground, and calling to them tofall into this or that parry, effected it as rapidly as if it hadbeen determined on by a council of the whole number, and every manhad known his place.
It was perfectly notorious to the assemblage that the largestbody, which comprehended about two-thirds of the whole, wasdesigned for the attack on Newgate. It comprehended all therioters who had been conspicuous in any of their formerproceedings; all those whom they recommended as daring hands andfit for the work; all those whose companions had been taken in theriots; and a great number of people who were relatives or friendsof felons in the jail. This last class included, not only the mostdesperate and utterly abandoned villains in London, but some whowere comparatively innocent. There was more than one woman there,disguised in man"s attire, and bent upon the rescue of a child orbrother. There were the two sons of a man who lay under sentenceof death, and who was to be executed along with three others, onthe next day but one. There was a great parry of boys whosefellow-pickpockets were in the prison; and at the skirts of all,a score of miserable women, outcasts from the world, seeking torelease some other fallen creature as miserable as themselves, ormoved by a general sympathy perhaps--God knows--with all who werewithout 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 scalingthe walls, each carried on the shoulders of a dozen men; lightedtorches; tow smeared with pitch, and tar, and brimstone; stavesroughly plucked from fence and paling; and even crutches taken fromcrippled beggars in the streets; composed their arms. When all wasready, Hugh and Dennis, with Simon Tappertit between them, led theway. Roaring and chafing like an angry sea, the crowd pressedafter them.
Instead of going straight down Holborn to the jail, as allexpected, their leaders took the way to Clerkenwell, and pouringdown a quiet street, halted before a locksmith"s house--the GoldenKey.
"Beat at the door," cried Hugh to the men about him. "We want oneof his craft to-night. Beat it in, if no one answers."