f the world, and because Tom-Jim-Jack, this leader
of the mob, seemed a sort of supreme bully, without a tie, without a
friend; a smasher of windows, a manager of men, now here, now gone,
hail-fellow-well-met with every one, companion of none.

This raging envy against Gwynplaine did not give in for a few friendly
hits from Tom-Jim-Jack. The outcries having miscarried, the mountebanks
of Tarrinzeau Field fell back on a petition. They addressed to the
authorities. This is the usual course. Against an unpleasant success we
first try to stir up the crowd and then we petition the magistrate.

With the merry-andrews the reverends allied themselves. The Laughing Man
had inflicted a blow on the preachers. There were empty places not only
in the caravans, but in the churches. The congregations in the churches
of the five parishes in Southwark had dwindled away. People left before
the sermon to go to Gwynplaine. "Chaos Vanquished," the Green Box, the
Laughing Man, all the abominations of Baal, eclipsed the eloquence of
the pulpit. The voice crying in the desert, _vox clamantis in deserto_,
is discontented, and is prone to call for the aid of the authorities.
The clergy of the five parishes complained to the Bishop of London, who
complained to her Majesty.

The complaint of the merry-andrews was based on religion. They declared
it to be insulted. They described Gwynplaine as a sorcerer, and Ursus as
an atheist. The reverend gentlemen invoked social order. Setting
orthodoxy aside they took action on the fact that Acts of Parliament
were violated. It was clever. Because it was the period of Mr. Locke,
who had died but six months previously--28th October, 1704--and when
scepticism, which Bolingbroke had imbibed from Voltaire, was taking
root. Later on Wesley came and restored the Bible, as Loyola restored
the papacy.

Thus the Green Box was battered on both sides; by the merry-andrews, in
the name of the Pentateuch, and by chaplains in the name of the police.
In the name of Heaven and of the inspectors of nuisances. The Green Box
was denounced by the priests as an obstruction, and by the jugglers as
sacrilegious.

Had they any pretext? Was there any excuse? Yes. What was the crime?
This: there was the wolf. A dog was allowable; a wolf forbidden. In
England the wolf is an outlaw. England admits the dog which barks, but
not the dog which howls--a shade of difference between the yard and the
woods.

The rectors and vicars of the