combined to render the
assemblage in a high degree exciting.

"I wonder if Warner will speak to-night," said Dandy Mick to Devilsdust.

"He can't pitch it in like Gerard," replied his companion.

"But he is a trump in the tender," said the Dandy. "The Handlooms looks
to him as their man, and that's a powerful section."

"If you come to the depth of a question, there's nothing like Stephen
Morley," said Devilsdust. "'Twould take six clergymen any day to settle
him. He knows the principles of society by heart. But Gerard gets hold
of the passions."

"And that's the way to do the trick," said Dandy Mick. "I wish he would
say march, and no mistake."

"There is a great deal to do before saying that," said Devilsdust. "We
must have discussion, because when it comes to reasoning, the oligarchs
have not got a leg to stand on; and we must stop the consumption of
exciseable articles, and when they have no tin to pay the bayonets and
their b--y police, they are dished."

"You have a long head, Dusty," said Mick.

"Why I have been thinking of it ever since I knew two and two made
four," said his friend. "I was not ten years old when I said to
myself--It's a pretty go this, that I should be toiling in a shoddy-hole
to pay the taxes for a gentleman what drinks his port wine and stretches
his legs on a Turkey carpet. Hear, hear," he suddenly exclaimed, as
Gerard threw off a stinging sentence. "Ah! that's the man for the
people. You will see, Mick, whatever happens, Gerard is the man who will
always lead."

Gerard had ceased amid enthusiastic plaudits, and Warner--that hand-loom
weaver whom the reader may recollect, and who had since become a popular
leader and one of the principal followers of Gerard--had also addressed
the multitude. They had cheered and shouted, and voted resolutions, and
the business of the night was over. Now they were enjoined to disperse
in order and depart in peace. The band sounded a triumphant retreat; the
leaders had descended from the Druid's Altar; the multitude were melting
away, bearing back to the town their high resolves and panting thoughts,
and echoing in many quarters the suggestive appeals of those who
had addressed them. Dandy Mick and Devilsdust departed together; the
business of their night had not yet commenced, and it was an important
one.

They took their way to that suburb whither Gerard and Morley repaired
the evening of their return from Marney Abbey; but it was not on this
oc