had yet heard; from the street to the very
housetops the cry was caught up and repeated, while a tumultuous joy
seemed to rock the crowd as they moved to and fro.
At this moment the excitement was almost maddening. Every neck was
strained in one direction, every eye pointed thither, while the
prolonged cheering was sustained with a roar as deafening as the sea in
a storm. At last the crowd were forced back, and I saw three gentlemen
advancing abreast: the two outside ones were holding between them the
weak and trembling figure of an old and broken man, whose emaciated form
and withered face presented the very extreme of lassitude and weakness;
his loose coat hung awkwardly on his spare and shrunken form, and he
moved along in a shuffling, slipshod fashion. As they mounted the steps
of the Parliament House, the cheering grew wilder and more enthusiastic;
and I wondered how he who was evidently the object could seem so
indifferent to the welcome thus given him, as with bent-down head he
pressed on, neither turning right nor left. With seeming difficulty he
was assisted up the steps, when he slowly turned round, and removing
his hat, saluted the crowd. The motion was a simple one, but in its very
simplicity was its power. The broad white forehead,--across which some
scanty hair floated,--the eye that now beamed proudly forth, was turned
upon them; and never was the magic of a look more striking. For a second
all was hushed, and then a very thunder of applause rolled out, and the
name of Henry Grattan burst from every tongue.
Just then one of the mob, exasperated by a stroke from the flat of a
dragoon's sabre, had caught the soldier by the foot and flung him from
his saddle to the ground; his comrades flew to his rescue at once, and
charged the crowd, which fell back before them. The College men, taking
advantage of this, sprang forward on the mob, armed with their favorite
weapons, their hurdles of strong oak; the street was immediately torn
up behind, and a shower of paving stones poured in upon the luckless
military, now completely hemmed in between both parties. Tells of rage
and defiance rose on either side, and the cheers of the victors and
cries of the wounded were mixed in mad confusion.
My lamp-post was no longer an enviable position, and I slipped gently
down towards the ground; in doing so, however, I unfortunately kicked
off a soldier's cap. The man turned on me at once and collared me,
and notwithstanding
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