ere was not a man about the village when
we left.'

'Hark!' she murmured. The noise of the cartwheels had stopped, and given
place to another sort of sound.

''Tis a scuffle!' said Stockdale. 'There'll be murder! Lizzy, let go my
arm; I am going on. On my conscience, I must not stay here and do
nothing!'

'There'll be no murder, and not even a broken head,' she said. 'Our men
are thirty to four of them: no harm will be done at all.'

'Then there is an attack!' exclaimed Stockdale; 'and you knew it was to
be. Why should you side with men who break the laws like this?'

'Why should you side with men who take from country traders what they
have honestly bought wi' their own money in France?' said she firmly.

'They are not honestly bought,' said he.

'They are,' she contradicted. 'I and Owlett and the others paid thirty
shillings for every one of the tubs before they were put on board at
Cherbourg, and if a king who is nothing to us sends his people to steal
our property, we have a right to steal it back again.'

Stockdale did not stop to argue the matter, but went quickly in the
direction of the noise, Lizzy keeping at his side. 'Don't you interfere,
will you, dear Richard?' she said anxiously, as they drew near. 'Don't
let us go any closer: 'tis at Warm'ell Cross where they are seizing 'em.
You can do no good, and you may meet with a hard blow!'

'Let us see first what is going on,' he said. But before they had got
much further the noise of the cartwheels began again; and Stockdale soon
found that they were coming towards him. In another minute the three
carts came up, and Stockdale and Lizzy stood in the ditch to let them
pass.

Instead of being conducted by four men, as had happened when they went
out of the village, the horses and carts were now accompanied by a body
of from twenty to thirty, all of whom, as Stockdale perceived to his
astonishment, had blackened faces. Among them walked six or eight huge
female figures, whom, from their wide strides, Stockdale guessed to be
men in disguise. As soon as the party discerned Lizzy and her companion
four or five fell back, and when the carts had passed, came close to the
pair.

'There is no walking up this way for the present,' said one of the gaunt
women, who wore curls a foot long, dangling down the sides of her face,
in the fashion of the time. Stockdale recognized this lady's voice as
Owlett's.

'Why not?' said Stockdale. 'This is the publ