palace went forth about eight o'clock to see the illumination of the
bonfire, gaining easy access to the offices of the Bishop's secretary,
which were situated between the two gateways, one called Penniless
Porch, the other the Palace Eye, both at the top of the market square.
Those who had turned away with disgust from the bull-fight, yet felt it
almost their duty to be present at the great Protestant demonstration of
fire and burning. So that the windows of the office were filled by the
palace party, amongst whom were members of the Bishop's family.

[Illustration: Penniless Porch, Wells.]

It was indeed a sight never to be forgotten when the huge bonfire was
lighted, and the flames leaped up to the sky. The quaint old houses in
the market square were illuminated with a ruddy glow, and the cathedral
towers caught the fitful radiance, and stood up against the murky
November sky with a flush of crimson on their hoary heads. The shouting
and the tumult reached its height when Guy Fawkes' great effigy fell
into the burning mass, and cries of "No Popery!" "Down with the
Catholics!" were taken up, by every little screaming urchin, who, with
burned fingers and scorched cheeks, thought he was doing good service to
some cause, though, if he and half that seething crowd had been
questioned as to why they came together, the "more part," as in times of
old, could not have given an answer.

A great wrong once done, which fastens on the mind of a nation, and is
handed down as a subject of everlasting indignation from generation to
generation, must be expected to demand outward demonstration. Thus the
fires of Smithfield, and the secret plot of the conspirators beneath the
hall at Westminster, have never been forgotten.

The people still hunger for some expression of their wrath, and do not
wait to ask if that expression takes a wholesome form.

Although like demonstrations have been very much moderated of late
years, and nearly stopped altogether by the authorities in Wells, still
there is yet a city of the West whose motto is "Ever faithful," where
the same scene is acted even on a larger scale; and woe to the unhappy
man who may have incurred the displeasure of the good people of Exeter
during the current year. His effigy is still paraded through the
streets, followed by mummers in gay attire, and, amidst general
execrations, his image tumbles down into the fiery furnace, as a meet
companion for that, of the never-to-be-forgo