Stolid and calm, the police stood on the doorsteps, and in the area, while the roughs shouted themselves hoarse. At the end of a couple of hours came news that things were growing lively near the Serpentine; and thereupon, nearly half the Hill Street crowd hastened to the Park in search of something fresh and more exciting. Hastily, but still not sufficiently, reinforced, the police now attempted to check the conduct of the crowd, which had already driven all but a few of the pluckier carriage people homeward. Many of the most disorderly characters had now mustered near the Royal Humane Society’s Receiving House. A body of police, with truncheons drawn, marched along the drive to clear it of pedestrians. Those who would not give way were pushed or roughly handled. The same tactics were pursued on the footpath on the south side of the Serpentine, and here much confusion and excitement arose, many persons being forced ankle-deep into the water. Women, who had got mixed with the crowd, screamed with terror. The wail of frightened children filled the air, and angry cries were raised against the constables, some of whom were struck by stones and clods of earth. At the same time, some fifty constables, under Superintendent Helden, reached Grosvenor Gate. There, the men were formed in a column of sections of ten, having a front of five men, and marched towards a threatening section of the mob. Instead of retiring, the people received the police defiantly and with an angry yell. The superintendent shouted to them to give way, but the warning was disregarded. Suddenly some one tripped him up. He fell and hurt his knee; and, thus provoked, the men with drawn truncheons rushed forward, and, without orders, attacked the crowd. A savage _melée_ was the result. From that moment there were conflicts of a similar character throughout the Park. Reinforcements of police were hurried up, and further conflicts followed. So grave did the situation become as the evening hours drew on that large reserves of constables were mustered at Stanhope Gate, the Triumphal Arch, the Marble Arch, and Walton Street, and in Lowndes Square. Ere darkness fell the Humane Society’s Receiving House became a temporary prison; a riotous mob demanded the release of their friends, and there were many ugly rushes, repelled with difficulty by the police. Cabs now were sent for, and seventy persons, charged with assaults, disorderly conduct, and resisting the police, were removed, amid a storm of angry cries, to the Police stations. By nine o’clock the Park was cleared. Thus ended the first skirmish in the campaign of the Leaguers of London against the forces of law and order. CHAPTER VI THE MURDER OF DR GRADY