times, and took part in its excesses, for they had been necessitated, they said, to imitate the women of Tekoah; and in subsequent history, when the unfortunate Princess Lamballe was murdered, the women were the most forward in the perpetration of that dreadful tragedy. Of such a nature was Mr. Eustace Gill, and fitly might he have exclaimed in the bard of Avon's words,

"Would curses kill as doth the mandrake's groan,
I would invent as bitter searching terms,

As curst, as harsh, as horrible to bear,
Delivered strongly through my fixed teeth,
With full as many signs of deadly hate
As lean-faced Envy in her loathsome cave.
My tongue should stumble in mine earnest words,
Mine eyes should sparkle like the beaten flint,
Mine hair be fixed on end like one distract,
Ay, every joint should seem to curse and ban;
And even now my burdened heart would break
Should I not curse them-"

And now, in the midst of this tumultuous scene of rancour and poor spite, the drums and bugles are heard to give loud notice of the approach of Sir John and his gallant company.

On came the band and standards first, and, when the thousand horsemen pass, the good townsmen deem them to be the procession at large, and a rumour runs that Sir John has resigned, for they never would place him in the utmost rear. But lo! the troop passes by, and on rides Sir John, hat in hand, surrounded by his faithful body-guard, who escort him with deafening hurrahs. To use the words of the poet Otway, the old baronet,

"Comely as rising day,

Amid ten thousand eminently known,"

was in himself a very picture and pattern of what the courteous, charitable, and enlightened English gentleman ought to be; and now, as he rode up the densely-peopled street, his fine countenance, in which heroism and benevolence were equally mingled in firm yet bland expression, could not but excite the admiration of the beholders. But when he had reached the centre of the town, and his men were forming in the large square, and

troop after troop of friends kept riding onwards, then indeed was admiration turned into wonder, and foes involuntarily exclaimed, “What can stand against this strength ?—how loved this man must be in the county at large!"

Now the leaders of the Radical party, who were sitting on the raised seat at the head of the Town Hall, could see through the windows the procession coming on, and nothing could exceed the astonishment of all; and at once they decided that they would be beaten in any contest they might undertake. This was a great damper, for men who seek to live by popularity cannot endure the smallest display of popular feeling on the opposite side : but when such a show as this was made, the largest by far within the memory of the oldest townsman, then indeed they felt the ground quaking under them; for how different was it to be supported by the stalwart yeomen of the county, all of whom were electors, and to be supported by the angry, waspish

set of non-electors assembled before them in

the packed Town Hall.

Soon the heavy tread of Sir John's supporters is heard on the old oaken staircase, and the baronet himself is borne on by his friends along a side passage in the hall to the prepared platform. The appearance of this benign and venerable man was the signal for every kind of groaning, whistling, and hooting. The uproar was very great; and, while the leading Whigs listened with complacent looks, Mr. Eustace Gill acted as fugleman to the rabble, and hooted and hissed with all his might and main. Now, Sir John's supporters had never dreamed of such a reception as this, and never intended to go up into the hall, well knowing that the building could only contain a very small portion of them; but a few faithful and close followers of the baronet's body-guard, and especially a noble fellow bearing a large new flag with the Armitage arms and motto emblazoned on it, had pushed their way in, and, when they beheld

the state of things, some of them slipped out to give notice of what was going on. The noise was continued in the hall, and soon the high-sheriff arose to open the business, and the reading of the acts of parliament commenced. It was very plain that no speaker on Sir John's side would be heard, for though the body of opposing weavers was not numerous, yet they were persevering in keeping up a dreadful noise and clamour. At length, all the preliminaries being completed, the host of Hawthornden arose to propose Sir John Armitage, Bart., of Swanbourne Hall, as a fit and proper person to represent the interests of the great county of York in parliament; but the very motion of his rising was met with such a clamour and hooting that not one word could be heard. The Radicals were in high glee, when lo! a sound as of mighty rushing waters is heard, and soon the large doors are torn from their hinges, the constables are hurled on their backs by the concussion, and a vast body