mrods were heard clinking in the
barrels. I saw there was but one moment, and cried out, "Courage, lads,
and down upon them!"--and with that I dashed madly forward, followed
by the mob, that like a mighty mass now rolled heavily after me. The
soldiers fell back as we came on; their bayonets were brought to the
charge; the word "Fire low!" was passed along the line, and a bright
sheet of flame flashed forth, and was answered by a scream of anguish
that drowned the crash of the fire. In the rush backwards I was thrown
on the ground, and at first believed I had been shot; but I soon
perceived I was safe, and sprang to my legs. But the same moment a blow
on the head from the but-end of a musket smote me to the earth, and
I neither saw nor heard of anything very clearly afterwards. I had,
indeed, a faint, dreamy recollection of being danced upon and trampled
by some hundred heavy feet, and then experiencing a kind of swinging,
rocking motion, as if carried on something; but these sensations are far
too vague to reason upon, much less to chronicle.

CHAPTER XII. A CHARACTER.

There must have been a very considerable interval from the moment I have
last recorded to that in which I next became a responsible individual;
but in what manner, in what place, or in what company it was passed, the
reader must excuse my indulging, for many important reasons,--one of
which is, I never clearly knew anything of the matter.

To date my recollections from my first consciousness, I may state that I
found myself on my back in a very narrow bed, a table beside me covered
with phials and small flasks, with paper cravats, some of which hung
down, queue fashion, to an absurd extent. A few rush backed and bottomed
chairs lay along the walls, which were coarsely whitewashed. A window,
of very unclean and unprepossessing aspect, was partly shaded by a faded
scarlet curtain, while the floor was equally sparingly decked with
a small and ragged carpet. Where was I? was the frequent but
unsatisfactory query I ever put to myself. Could this be a prison? had I
been captured on that riotous evening, and carried off to jail? or was
I in Darby M'Keown's territory?--for somehow, a very general
impression was on my mind that Darby's gifts of ubiquity were somewhat
remarkable,--or, lastly (and the thought was not a pleasant one), was
this the domicile of Anthony Basset, Esq., attorney-at-law? To have
resolved any or all of these doubts by rising and takin