The Manchester Rebels of the Fatal '45Ainsworth, William Harrison
History
The Manchester Rebels of the Fatal '45
Ainsworth, William Harrison
Great Britain -- History -- George II, 1727-1760 -- Fiction; Jacobite Rebellion, 1745-1746 -- Fiction
"No, I glory in the deed," rejoined Syddall."'Tis an action of which
we may be justly proud. We have saved the bridge from destruction at
the risk of our own lives."
"You will be clapped into prison and punished for what you have done,"
said Sharrocks.
"If we should be imprisoned, Sharrocks, which I doubt," rejoined
Syddall, confidently, "the people will deliver us. Know you who I am?"
"Well enough; you are Tom Syddall, the barber," said the other.
"I am the son of that Tom Syddall who approved his devotion to the
royal House of Stuart with his blood."
"Ay, I recollect seeing your father's head stuck up in the
market-place," said Sharrocks. "Take care your own is not set up in
the same spot."
He then marched off to despatch the messenger to the boroughreeve, and
on his return caused the prisoners to be taken to the great
storehouse, from an upper window of which was suspended a flag,
emblazoned with the royal arms.
"I tell you what, Sharrocks," said Syddall, "before two days that flag
will be hauled down."
"I rather think not," rejoined the wharf-master dryly.
Atherton Legh took no part in this discourse, but maintained a
dignified silence.
The prisoners were then shut up in a small room near the entrance of
the storehouse, and a porter armed with a loaded musket was placed as
a sentinel at the door.
However, except for the restraint, they had no reason to complain of
their treatment. A pint of wine was brought them, with which they
regaled themselves, and after drinking a couple of glasses, Tom, who
had become rather downcast, felt his spirits considerably revive.
Knocking at the door, he called out to the porter, "I say, friend, if
not against rules, I should very much like a pipe."
The porter being a good-natured fellow said he would see about it, and
presently returned with a pipe and a paper of tobacco. His wants being
thus supplied, Tom sat down and smoked away very comfortably.
Atherton paid very little attention to him. Truth to say, he was
thinking of Constance Rawcliffe.
Rather more than an hour had elapsed, and Mr. Sharrocks was expecting
an answer from the boroughreeve, when he heard a tumultuous sound in
the lane, already described as leading from the top of Deansgate to
the quay.
Alarmed by this noise, he hurried to the great gate, which he had
previously ordered to be closed, and looking out, perceived a mob,
consisting of some three or four hundred persons, hurrying towards the
spot.
If he had any doubt as to their intentions it would have been
dispelled by hearing that their cry was "Tom Syddall!" Evidently they
were coming to liberate the brave barber.
Hastily shutting and barring the gate, and ordering the porters to
guard it, he flew to the room in which Tom and his companion were
confined, and found the one tranquilly smoking his pipe, as we have
related, and the other seated in a chair opposite him, and plunged in
a reverie.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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