He sometimes went into Pentreath, and addressed meetings there, in response to invitations from old associates; but his personal interest in the place and in politics seemed to have flagged just now. The passing of the measure upon which his heart had been set took away from him his sense of grievance, and robbed that side of his character of its main element. He shared the half-ignorant expectations of the lower classes, that as soon as the Reform Bill became law some great change in the condition of the people would result immediately from it; and he supposed this change was already going on in other places, and would soon reach the West-Country. If that was so, his task was over for the present, until some new agitation was set on foot. Meantime the free and lawless life he was leading was all-sufficient for him. He was the hero of St. Bride’s Bay, the most successful man all along the coast, and was not only making money fast, but was enjoying his life as he had perhaps never enjoyed it before. But the old class hatred which had long burned within him was still smouldering as fiercely as before, and only wanted a breath of wind to fan it to a raging flame. Nor was this breath long wanting; for in November came the news that the Lords had thrown out the bill, that for the moment it was dead, could not pass into law, that the battle would have to be fought all over again (as most people thought), and that the Lords had shown themselves once and for all the fierce and inveterate enemies of the rights and liberties of the people. A great wave of anger and revolt swept all through England when this thing became known. Perhaps never had she been so near to revolution as that dark November, when the people, eagerly awaiting the advent of some wonderful and semi-miraculous change in their condition, received the news that the measure which was to ensure this had been trampled under foot, and cast ignominiously to the four winds of heaven by the peers of the realm. A cry of execration and hatred ran through the country. Riots and incendiary fires broke out wherever the news penetrated. At Pentreath there was a hot demonstration of popular fury; and Saul had never so raged against his physical infirmity as when he found himself forced to remain at home, eating his heart out in silence, whilst the other men of his persuasion marched with the rioters, and committed acts of lawlessness which gratified their bitter hatred, without, as it happened, doing very much permanent harm in the place.