, with four silver stars in the corner. Then the leaders
knelt beneath it, and, having sworn to defend one another to the death,
proceeded to enrol the miners and form them into squads ready for
drilling. Meantime the military camp was being rapidly fortified with
trusses of hay, bags of corn, and loads of firewood. The soldiers were
in hourly expectation of an attack, and for four successive nights they
slept fully accoutred, and with their loaded muskets beside them. All
night long lights were seen to move busily backwards and forwards among
the diggers' tents, and the solid tread of great bodies of men could be
heard amid the darkness. Lalor was marshalling his forces on the
slopes of Ballarat, and drilling them to use such arms as they
possessed--whether rifles, or pistols, or merely spikes fastened at the
ends of poles.

#10. The Eureka Stockade.#--Sir Charles Hotham now sent up the remaining
eight hundred soldiers of the Ninety-ninth Regiment, under Sir Robert
Nickle, and to these he added all the marines from the men-of-war and
nearly all the police of the colony. They were several days on the
march, and only arrived when the disturbance was over. The diggers had
formed an entrenchment, called the Eureka Stockade, and had enclosed
about an acre of ground with a high slab fence. In the midst of this
stronghold they proclaimed the "Republic of Victoria"; and here they
were able to carry on their drilling unmolested, under the command of
the two leaders--Vern, a German, and Peter Lalor, the son of an Irish
gentleman. They sent out parties in every direction to gather all the
arms and ammunition they could obtain, and made extensive preparations
for an assault; but, imagining that the soldiers would never dream of
attacking them until the arrival of Sir Robert Nickle, they kept guard
but carelessly. Captain Thomas--who commanded the troops in the
camp--determined to finish the affair by a sudden attack; and, on
Saturday night, whilst the diggers were amusing themselves in fancied
security, he was carefully making his preparations. On Sunday morning,
just after daybreak, when the stockade contained only two hundred men,
Captain Thomas led his troops quietly forth, and succeeded in
approaching within three hundred yards of the stockade without being
observed. The alarm was then given within; the insurgents rushed to
their posts, and poured a heavy volley upon the advancing soldiers, of
whom about twelve fell. The att