d effects as they wished to preserve. The tremendous roar of
the authors of these terrible scenes was heard at one instant, and at
the next the dreadful report of soldiers' musquets, firing in platoons
and from different quarters; in short, everything served to impress the
mind with ideas of universal anarchy and approaching desolation."

From the closing words of this account it is plain that at last
authority had begun to do its duty and to meet force with force.
Terrorized London shook with every wild rumor. Now men said that the
mob had got arms, and was more than a match for the military; now that
the lions in the Tower were to be let loose; now that the lunatics from
Bedlam were to be set free. Every alarming rumor that fear could
inspire and terror credit was buzzed abroad upon that dreadful day,
when the servants of the Secretary of State wore blue cockades in their
hats and private gentlemen barricaded their houses, armed their people,
and prepared to stand a siege. Horace Walpole found his relative, Lord
Hertford, engaged with his sons in loading muskets to be in readiness
for the insurgents. Everybody now shared in the general alarm, but the
alarm affected different temperaments differently. Some men fled from
town; others loaded guns and sharpened swords; others put their hands
in their pockets and lounged, curious spectators, on the heels of riot,
eager to observe {206} and willing to record events so singular and so
unprecedented.

It is pleasant to be able to chronicle that the King showed an especial
courage and composure during that wild week's work. George the Third
never lost head nor heart. To do his House justice, personal courage
was one of their traditions, but the family quality never showed to
better advantage than in this crisis. If indeed George the Second were
prepared, as has been hinted, to fly from London on the approach of the
young Pretender, George the Third displayed no such weakness in the
face of a more immediate peril. The peril was more immediate, it was
also more menacing. No man could safely say where bad work so begun
might ultimately pause. What had been an agitation in favor of a
petition might end in revolution against the Crown. Outrages that had
at first been perpetrated with the purpose of striking terror only were
changing their character. Schemes of plunder formed no part of the
early plans of the rioters; now it began to be known that the rioters
had thei