The Heart

I have seen the same effect when a stone was thrown into a boil of

river-rapids; an enhancement and marvellous entanglement of

swiftness and fury, and spread of broken circles, which confused the

sight at the time and the memory afterwards.

It was but a small body of horse and foot, which charged us whilst

we were cutting the tobacco on the plantation of Laurel Creek, but

it needed not a large one to put to rout a company so overbalanced

by enthusiasm, and cider, and that marvellous greed of destruction.

No more than seven gentlemen of us there were to make a stand, and

not more than some twenty-five of the rabble to be depended upon.

As for me, the principal thought in my mind when the militia burst

upon us, was the safety of Mary Cavendish. Straight to the door of

the great house I rushed, and Sir Humphrey Hyde was with me. As for

the other gentlemen, they were fighting here and there as they

could, Captain Jaynes making efforts to keep the main body of the

defenders at his back, but with little avail. I stood against the

door of the house, resolved upon but one course--that my dead

body should be the threshold over which they crossed to Mary

Cavendish. It was but a pitiful resolve, for what could I do

single-handed, except for the boy Humphrey Hyde, against so many.

But it was all, and a man can but give his all. I knew if the

militia were to find Mary and Catherine Cavendish in that house,

grave harm might come to them, if indeed it came not already without

that. So I stood back against the door which I had previously tried,

and found fast, and Sir Humphrey was with me. Then came a hush for a

moment whilst the magistrate with Captain Waller, and others sitting

on their horses around him, read the Riot Act, and bade us all

disperse and repair to our homes, and verily I wonder, if ever there

hath been in all the history of England such a farce and mummery as

that same Riot Act, and if ever it were read with much effect when a

riot were well under way.

Scarcely time they gave the worthy man to finish, and indeed his

voice trembled as if he had the ague, and he seemed shrinking for

shelter under his big wig, but they drowned out his last words with

hisses, then there was a wild rush of the rabble and a cry of "Down

with the tobacco!" and "A Bacon, A Bacon!" Then the militia charged,

and there were the flashes of swords and partisans and the thunder

of firearms.