mself. How small in comparison seemed the
mob of his enemies! I never admired him more than at that moment. He was
superb, sublime. They had wound their meshes about him, and the lion had
burst them. One swift, daring stroke had frustrated all their plans. He
who was to be quietly suppressed by resolutions of the House had cut
the knot of their policy asunder, made himself the hero of the hour, and
fixed the nation's eyes on his splendid audacity.

Reaction set in after that terrible struggle, and he accepted a chair
that was brought him. Several members passed as he sat there. One of
them was the coward, Frank Hugh O'Donnell. He had a lady on his arm,
and he passed with her between himself and Mr. Bradlaugh, so that
her dress trailed over the hero's feet. It was a wretched display of
insolence and cowardice. But the lady must be exonerated. She looked
annoyed, her cheeks reddened, and her eyelids fell. It is so hard for
a woman to resist the attraction of courage, and the coward by her side
must have suffered in her estimation.

There was a crowded meeting that evening at the Hall of Science,
at which I had the honor of speaking, Mr. Bradlaugh's greeting was
tremendous. Two days afterwards he was seriously ill.

During that great constitutional struggle I was present at many
"Bradlaugh" meetings, and I never witnessed such enthusiasm as he
excited. No man of my time had such a devoted following.

The last "Bradlaugh" demonstration I attended was on February 15, 1883,
in Trafalgar-square. Seventy or eighty thousand people were present.
There were four speakers, and three of them are dead, Joseph Arch being
the sole survivor. Mr. Adams, of Northampton, lived to see his old
friend take his seat and do good work in the House of Commons, became
himself Mayor of Northampton, and died universally respected by his
fellow-townsmen; William Sharman, a brave, true man, is buried at
Preston; and Charles Bradlaugh sleeps his long sleep at Woking.

For another twelve months I attended no public meetings except the
silent ones on the exercise ground of Holloway Gaol, But I saw Mr.
Bradlaugh at several demonstrations on various subjects after my
imprisonment, and I could perceive no abatement of his popularity. He
had his enemies and detractors, but the spontaneous outburst of feeling
at his death proved his hold on the popular heart.

I must now leap forward to that dreadful illness which left him a
broken man. Years before, in