Weapons of defence they found but very few, and yet there were some
which, to do them but common credit, they used as effectually as
possible. These attics, or lofts, were used as lumber-rooms, and had been so for
years, so that there was a collection of old boxes, broken pieces of
furniture, and other matters, which will, in defiance of everything and
everybody, collect in a house. These were formidable means of defence, if not of offence, down a very
narrow staircase, had they been used with judgment. Some of the rioters, who were only just drunk enough to be fool-hardy,
collected a few of these articles at the top of the staircase, and swore
they would smash anybody who should attempt to come up to them, a threat
easier uttered than executed. And besides, after all, if their position had been ever so impregnable,
they must come down eventually, or be starved out. But the soldiers were not at liberty to adopt so slow a process of
overcoming their enemy, and up the second-floor staircase they went,
with a determination of making short work of the business. They paused a moment, by word of command, on the landing, and then,
after this slight pause, the word was given to advance. Now when men will advance, in spite of anything and everything, it is no
easy matter to stop them, and he who was foremost among the military
would as soon thought of hesitating to ascend the narrow staircase
before him, when ordered so to do, as paying the national debt. On he
went, and down came a great chest, which, falling against his feet,
knocked him down as he attempted to scramble over it. "Fire," said the officer; and it appeared that he had made some
arrangements as to how the order was to be obeyed, for the second man
fired his carbine, and then scrambled over his prostrate comrade; after
which he stooped, and the third fired his carbine likewise, and then
hurried forward in the same manner. At the first sound of the fire arms the rioters were taken completely by
surprise; they had not had the least notion of affairs getting to such a
length. The smell of the powder, the loud report, and the sensation of
positive danger that accompanied these phenomena, alarmed them most
terrifically; so that, in point of fact, with the exception of the empty
chest that was thrown down in the way of the first soldier, no further
idea of defence seemed in any way to find a place in the hearts of the
besieged. They scrambled one over the other in their eagerness to get as far as
possible from immediate danger, which, of course, they conceived existed
in the most imminent degree the nearest to the door. Such was the state of terror into which they were thrown, that each one
at the moment believed himself shot, and the soldiers had overcome all
the real difficulties in getting possession of what might thus be called
the citadel of the inn, before those men who had been so valorous a
short time since recovered from the tremendous fright into which they
had been thrown. We need hardly say that the carbines were loaded, but with blank
cartridges, for there was neither a disposition nor a necessity for
taking the lives of these misguided people. If was the suddenness and the steadiness of the attack that had done all
the mischief to their cause; and now, ere they recovered from the
surprise of having their position so completely taken by storm, they
were handed down stairs, one by one, from soldier to soldier, and into
the custody of the civil authorities. In order to secure the safe keeping of large a body of prisoners, the
constables, who were in a great minority, placed handcuffs upon some of
the most capable of resistance; so what with those who were thus
secured, and those who were terrified into submission, there was not a
man of all the lot who had taken refuge in the attics of the
public-house but was a prisoner. At the sound of fire-arms, the women who were outside the inn had, of
course, raised a most prodigious clamour. They believed directly that every bullet must have done some most
serious mischief to the townspeople, and it was only upon one of the
soldiers, a non-commissioned officer, who was below, assuring them of
the innoxious nature of the proceeding which restored anything like
equanimity. "Silence!" he cried: "what are you howling about? Do you fancy that
we've nothing better to do than to shoot a parcel of fellows that are
not worth the bullets that would be lodged in their confounded
carcases?" "But we heard the gun," said a woman. "Of course you did; it's the powder that makes the noise, not the
bullet. You'll see them all brought out safe wind and limb." This assurance satisfied the women to a certain extent, and such had
been their fear that they should have had to look upon the spectacle of
death, or of grievous wounds, that they were comparatively quite
satisfied when they saw husbands, fathers, and brothers, only in the
custody of the town officers. And very sheepish some of the fellows looked, when they were handed down
and handcuffed, and the more especially when they had been routed only
by a few blank cartridges--that sixpenny worth of powder had defeated
them. They were marched off to the town gaol, guarded by the military, who now
probably fancied that their night's work was over, and that the most
turbulent and troublesome spirits in the town had been secured. Such, however, was not the case, for no sooner had comparative order
been restored, than common observation pointed to a dull red glare in
the southern sky. In a few more minutes there came in stragglers from the open country,
shouting "Fire! fire!" with all their might. CHAPTER L.

THE MOB'S ARRIVAL AT SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S.--THE ATTEMPT TO GAIN
ADMISSION. [Illustration]

All eyes were directed towards that southern sky which each moment was
becoming more and more illuminated by the lurid appearance bespeaking a
conflagration, which if it was not extensive, at all events was raging
fiercely. There came, too upon the wind, which set from that direction, strange
sounds, resembling shouts of triumph, combined occasionally with sharper
cries, indicative of alarm. With so much system and so quietly had this attack been made upon the
house of Sir Francis Varney--for the consequences of it now exhibited
themselves most unequivocally--that no one who had not actually
accompanied the expedition was in the least aware that it had been at
all undertaken, or that anything of the kind was on the tapis. Now, however, it could be no longer kept a secret, and as the infuriated
mob, who had sought this flagrant means of giving vent to their anger,
saw the flames from the blazing house rising high in the heavens, they
felt convinced that further secrecy was out of the question. Accordingly, in such cries and shouts as--but for caution's sake--they
would have indulged in from the very first, they now gave utterance to
their feelings as regarded the man whose destruction was aimed at. "Death to the vampyre!--death to the vampyre!"