A Righte Merrie Christmasse: The Story of Christ-TideAshton, John
History
A Righte Merrie Christmasse: The Story of Christ-Tide
Ashton, John
Christmas -- History
"At the head of the Greek class was one whose very soul seemed formed
for the most daring attempts. He communicated his intentions to a
chosen few, of which the writer was one, and offered to be the leader
of the undertaking if we would promise him our support. We hesitated;
but he represented the certainty of success with such feeling
eloquence that he entirely subdued our opposition. He stated that
Addison had acquired immortal fame by a similar enterprise. He told us
that almost every effort in the sacred cause of freedom had succeeded.
He appealed to our classical recollections:--Epaminondas and Leonidas
were worthy of our example; Tarquin and Caesar, as tyrants, had fallen
before the united efforts of freedom; we had only to be unanimous, and
the rod of this scholastic despot would be for ever broken. We then
entered enthusiastically into his views. He observed that delays were
dangerous; 'the barring-out,' he said, 'should take place the very
next morning to prevent the possibility of being betrayed.' On a
previous occasion (he said), some officious little urchin had told the
master the whole plot, several days having been allowed to intervene
between the planning of the project and its execution, and, to the
astonishment of the boys, it appeared they found the master at his
desk two hours before his usual time, and had the mortification of
being congratulated on their early attendance, with an order to be
there every morning at the same hour!
"To prevent the occurrence of such a defeat we determined on
organising our plans that very night. The boys were accordingly told
to assemble after school hours at a well-known tombstone in the
neighbouring Churchyard, as something of importance was under
consideration. The place of meeting was an elevated parallelogram
tombstone, which had always served as a kind of council table to
settle our little disputes as well as parties of pleasure. Here we all
assembled at the appointed time. Our leader took his stand at one end
of the stone, with the head boys who were in the secret on each side
of him. 'My boys (he laconically observed), to-morrow morning we are
to _bar-out_ the flogging parson, and to make him promise that he will
not flog us hereafter without a cause, nor set us long tasks or
deprive us of our holidays. The boys of the Greek form will be your
Captains, and I am to be your Captain-General. Those that are cowards
had better retire and be satisfied with future floggings; but you, who
have courage, and know what it is to have been flogged for nothing,
come here and sign your names.' He immediately pulled out a pen and a
sheet of paper; and having tied some bits of thread round the
finger-ends of two or three boys, with a pin he drew blood to answer
for ink, and to give more solemnity to the act. He signed the first,
the Captains next, and the rest in succession. Many of the lesser boys
slunk away during the ceremony; but on counting the names we found we
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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