Fired to the fiercest enthusiasm by Mr. Burns, the proletariat now began to shout and yell with the accumulated hunger and frenzy of centuries of repression, and it was evident to the unprejudiced eye that they meant to make themselves respected and get back a little of their own, as the saying is. A hoarse and savage growl rent the air, and like hail the speaker, whose glittering eyes and black beard were distinctly visible from the windows of the Apollo, lashed his audience into a seething whirlpool of anarchical fury. Here and there the populace seemed to start forward on predatory thoughts intent; then they stood their ground again; and there were momentary intervals of silence in the riot, like the moments of silence in a thunderstorm. During one of these we distinctly heard a harsh and grating sound three doors down the street. It was a jeweler putting up his shutters. In that sound you might say was an allegory, for it typified the idea of Capital funking Labour. A few moments afterwards, Mr. Harrison himself stepped from his private chamber, walked to the outer door, and gravely and fearlessly surveyed the ominous scene. The masses were now out of hand, and their leaders, probably much to their own surprise and regret, had awakened a storm of unreasoning ferocity which threatened to plunge the West End into the horrors of civil war. At any rate Mr. Harrison appeared to think so, for after studying the temper of the crowd, he returned to us and uttered these memorable words: “Gentlemen,” he said, “this is revolution! Pull down the shutters!” Messengers hastened to obey his orders, and when iron curtains had crashed down between us and the stage of this stupendous spectacle, we took it in turn to look out through the letter-box. Mr. Harrison, with all the courageous instinct of a British sea-captain, decided not to leave the Apollo that night unless a great change should come over the spirit of the scene, but for my own part I was panting to rush out and join the revolution—not with a view to assist it in any nefarious project, but to study it from the artistic standpoint. Before I could start, however, the ferocious crowds had split up and swept in different directions. They went towards the west chiefly, and bursting in upon defenseless streets, that had not heard what was going on, surprised them painfully and helped themselves from the shops before their proprietors could arrest their onslaught. I came upon the people presently—to find them very far removed from what you might call a conciliatory attitude. XV