risoners were
committed for trial on the charges of manslaughter and riot. After these
had been removed in custody, Sir John Butler addressed a severe
admonition to the women.

It had, he said, been decided not to press the charge against them of
inciting to riot, but that they had used expressions calculated to stir
the men up to their foul and dastardly attack upon a number of young
women and girls there could be no doubt. The magistrates, however, had
decided to discharge them, and hoped that the inward reproach which they
could not but feel at having a hand in this disgraceful and fatal
outrage would be a lesson to them through life.

Trembling and abashed, the women made their way home, many of the crowd
hissing them as they passed along.

When, six weeks later, the assizes were held, four of the prisoners,
including Tom Walker, who was proved to be the leader, were sentenced to
seven years penal servitude. Ten men had terms of imprisonment varying
from two to five years, and the rest were let off with sentences of from
six to eighteen months.

Very long did the remembrance of "The Black Feast," as it came to be
called, linger in the memories of the people of Stokebridge and the
surrounding district. Great as was the grief and suffering caused alike
to the friends of those injured and of those upon whom fell punishment
and disgrace, the ultimate effect of the riot was, however, most
beneficial to Stokebridge. Many of the young men who had most strongly
opposed and derided the efforts of their juniors to improve themselves,
were now removed, for in addition to those captured and sentenced,
several of those who had taken part in the riot hastily left the place
upon the following day, fearing arrest and punishment for their share in
the night's proceedings. Few of them returned after the conclusion of
the trial, nor did the prisoners after the termination of their
sentences, for the feeling against them in the district was so strong
that they preferred obtaining work in distant parts of the country.

A similar effect was produced upon the young women. The narrow escape
which they had had of being sent to prison, the disgrace of being
arrested and publicly censured, the averted looks of their neighbours,
and the removal from the place of the young men with whom they had been
used to associate, combined to produce a great effect upon them.

Some profited by the lesson and adapted themselves to the altered ways
of