“Oh, no; they behaved very well and good-temperedly, for they were a good bit pelted and hooting at starting. I heard. They just fixed their bayonets, and marched quietly on in rank, and the mob dispersed more quickly than one would suppose possible. I think the fall of poor Tresithny, and the rumour that he was dead, frightened and discouraged the crowd, and perhaps they had had enough of it by that time. At any rate, by the time the soldiers reached us the street was almost clear; and after we had soothed and quieted the poor horses, who were in a lather from head to foot and quaking in every limb, they had picked up Tresithny tenderly enough, and laid him in the carriage, making a sort of bed for him there with all the cushions. It did not matter then that the poor fellow was bleeding, and that his clothes were covered with dust and mud: the carriage was in such a state inside and out that nothing could harm it more. When we had placed him there, we led the horses to the hotel yard, and your father was told everything, and came down to look for himself at the state of the equipage, and at the prostrate leader of the mob.” “And he sent him home to Abner?” said Bride, with a soft light in her eyes. “Yes. We got a surgeon to look at him without moving him, and he bound up the wound on his head, and cut away the boot from the crushed foot. He would not have him taken out of the carriage or moved in any way till he could be put straight to bed; and after the horses had been groomed and fed, the coachman was called for, and directed to drive young Tresithny to his grandfather’s cottage, the surgeon going in the carriage with him.” “Poor Abner!” said Bride once more; “but it will be the happiest thing for him to have Saul under his own roof.” “That is what your father said. So two soldiers were told off to see the carriage safe out of the town, and there is a sharp patrol of the streets being kept up to prevent any more organised rioting. I think the disturbers of the peace have had enough of it by this time. There is the ordinary scrimmaging and hustling about the poll, but that is quite a different thing from the desperate fighting and blackguardism that was going on round the Duke’s carriage. And now I have come to tell you that you will soon be called for and taken home. The hotel has furnished us with a coach to drive back in, and Captain O’Shaughnessy himself will accompany us out of the town to make sure there is no more rioting about us.” “And how is the poll going?” “Well for us. Mr. Morval has polled a large number of votes these past two hours, but Sir Roland still holds his own. So far as one may guess till the end has come, I should say he was quite safe for the seat; though I think his majority will be considerably reduced, as is natural, seeing how the party split. Things might have been much worse under such circumstances.”