ed
orders to protect the Council-house. He then charged through High Street
and Wine Street, and drove the rioters, who assailed the soldiers with
stones, into the narrow lanes and alleys.

[Illustration: Wine Street, Bristol.]

Many were wounded with sabre cuts, and Gilbert, in his efforts to save a
woman and child from being trampled down, just by the old timber house
at the corner of Wine Street, was overpowered by the press behind him,
and, just as he had succeeded in placing the woman and her infant in
safety on the high stone sill of a window, he was stunned by a blow,
given at a venture from a stout stick, and would have fallen and been
trampled to death, had not a pair of strong arms seized him and borne
him to a comparatively quiet place on the quay.

Gilbert was stunned and hardly conscious, and when he found himself on
his feet, he staggered and fell against a wall. Some soldiers riding up,
chased a band of rioters out of Clare Street, and Gilbert saw the great
giant who had delivered him felled by a sabre cut. The crowd passed over
him, and when it had cleared, Gilbert, himself feeble and exhausted,
bent over the man, and tried to drag him nearer the houses.

He was bleeding profusely, and hailing a cart passing to the Infirmary
with two wounded men, Gilbert begged the driver in charge, to raise the
prostrate man, and take him also to the Infirmary. It was no easy
matter, but at last it was accomplished, and a pair of dark, blood-shot
eyes were turned on Gilbert. The man tried to articulate, but no sound
came. As the cart was moving off, Gilbert saw he made a desperate
effort.

He raised his hand, and cried out with all his remaining strength, "Tell
your good lady I kept my word, and I saved you from harm!"

"Stop!" Gilbert said to the driver, "stop; this man has saved my life. I
must come to the Infirmary to see he has proper care and attention."

"You look fit for a 'ospital bed yourself, sir," said the man. "Jump up,
and I'll take you for a consideration," he added, with a knowing twinkle
of his eye.

Faint and exhausted himself, Gilbert saw the wounded man placed in one
of the wards with the others, whose condition was less serious, and,
bending over the man, he said:

"I recognise you now. You are Bob Priday?"

The man nodded assent.

"I've been a bad 'un," he said. "I went in for these riots, 'cause I was
sick of my life; but I'd like to see your good lady once more, and poor
little Sue.