“Very good,” he continued. “If your constables will do their duty with discretion—and you could not have a better man to command them than Mr. Vaughan, but he ought to be going about it now—I will answer for the peace of the city.” “But—but we shall see you again, Colonel Brereton,” the Mayor cried in some agitation. “See me, sir?” Brereton answered contemptuously. “Oh, yes, you can see me, if you wish to! But——” He shrugged his shoulders, and turned away without finishing the sentence. Vaughan, when he heard that, knew that, cool as Brereton seemed, he was not himself. A moody stubbornness had taken the place of last night’s excitement; but that was all. And as the party trooped downstairs—he had requested the Mayor to say a few words, placing the constables under his control—he swallowed his private feelings and approached Flixton. “Flixton,” he whispered, throwing what friendliness he could into his voice. “Do you think Brereton’s right?” Flixton turned an ill-humoured face towards him, and dragged at his sword-belt. “Oh, I don’t know,” he said irritably. “It’s his business, and I suppose he can judge. There’s a deuce of a crowd, I know, and if we go charging into it we shall be swallowed up in a twinkling!” “But it has been whispered to me,” Vaughan replied, “that he told the people on his way here that he’s for Reform. Isn’t it unwise to let them think that the soldiers may side with them?” “Fine talking,” Flixton answered with a sneer. “And God knows if we had five hundred men, or three hundred, I’d agree. But what can sixty or eighty men do galloping over slippery pavements in the dark? And if we fire and kill a dozen, the Government will hang us to clear themselves! And these d——d nigger-drivers and sugar-boilers behind us would be the first to swear against us!” Vaughan had his own opinion. But they had to part then. Flixton, in his blue uniform—there were two troops present, one of the 3rd Dragoon Guards in red, and one of the 14th Dragoons in blue—went out by Brereton’s side with his spurs ringing on the stone pavement and his sword clanking. He was not acting with his troop, but as the Colonel’s aide-de-camp. Meanwhile Vaughan, who could not see the old blue uniform without a pang, went with the Mayor to marshal the constables.