to London, he was arrested and sent to jail by persons
who had discovered his system of fraud and cruelty, as well as the fact
that he had in his possession a stolen will. Upon John Browdie, a burly
Scotchman, devolved the duty of carrying the painful news to Mrs. Squeers,
and of dismissing the school.

So, arriving at Dotheboys Hall, he tied his horse to a gate, and made his
way to the schoolroom door, which he found locked on the inside. A
tremendous noise and riot arose from within, and, applying his eye to a
convenient crevice in the wall, he did not remain long in ignorance of its
meaning.

The news of Mr. Squeers's downfall had reached Dotheboys; that was quite
clear. To all appearance, it had very recently become known to the young
gentlemen; for rebellion had just broken out.

It was one of the brimstone-and-treacle mornings, and Mrs. Squeers had
entered school according to custom with the large bowl and spoon, followed
by Miss Squeers and the amiable Wackford: who, during his father's
absence, had taken upon himself such minor branches of the executive as
kicking the pupils with his nailed boots, pulling the hair of some of the
smaller boys, pinching the others in aggravating places, and rendering
himself in various similar ways a great comfort and happiness to his
mother. Their entrance, whether by premeditation or a simultaneous
impulse, was the signal of revolt for the boys. While one detachment
rushed to the door and locked it, and another mounted the desks and forms,
the stoutest (and consequently the newest) boy seized the cane, and,
confronting Mrs. Squeers with a stern countenance, snatched off her cap
and beaver bonnet, put it on his own head, armed himself with the wooden
spoon, and bade her, on pain of death, go down upon her knees and take a
dose directly. Before that estimable lady could recover herself, or offer
the slightest retaliation, she was forced into a kneeling posture by a
crowd of shouting tormentors, and compelled to swallow a spoonful of the
odious mixture, rendered more than usually savoury by the immersion in the
bowl of Master Wackford's head, whose ducking was entrusted to another
rebel. The success of this first achievement prompted the malicious crowd,
whose faces were clustered together in every variety of lank and
half-starved ugliness, to further acts of outrage. The leader was
insisting upon Mrs. Squeers repeating her dose, Master Squeers was
undergoing another dip in the