lated to smooth its anxieties. The intelligence from the
county announced the increased extent of the revolt; and the intercepted
correspondence gave startling proof of an organization altogether superior
to the rude tumults of an angry peasantry. Several sharp encounters had
taken place with the soldiery, and in some of them, the troops, scattered
in small detachments and unprepared, had suffered losses. Insurrectionary
proclamations had been issued, and the revolt was already assuming a
military form; camps were collected on the mountains, and the arming of
the population was become general. My day was occupied in writing hurried
despatches to the magistrates and officers in command of the disturbed
districts; until the moment when the debate was expected to begin. On my
way to the House, every thing round me conspired to give a gloomy
impression to my mind, weary and dark as it was already. Public alarm was
at its height and the city, with the usual exaggerations of undefined
danger, presented the appearance of a place about to be taken by storm.
The streets were crowded with people hurrying in search of news, or
gathered in groups retailing what they had obtained, and evidently filled
with the most formidable conceptions of the public danger. The armed
yeomanry were hurrying to their stations for the night, patrols of
cavalry were moving out to scour the environs, and the carriages of the
gentry from the adjoining counties were driving to the hotels, crowded
with children and domestics; while waggons loaded with the furniture of
families resident in the metropolis, were making their way for security
into the country. All was confusion, hurry, and consternation. The scene
of a great city in alarm is absolutely inconceivable but by those who have
been on the spot. It singularly harassed and exhausted me; and at length,
for the purpose of escaping the whole sight and sensation together, I
turned from the spacious range of streets which led to the House; and made
my way along one of the narrow and obscure lanes which, by a libel on the
national taste, were still suffered to remain in the vicinity of an
edifice worthy of the days of Imperial Rome.

My choice was an unlucky one, for I had scarcely gone a hundred yards,
when I found my passage obstructed by a crowd evidently waiting with some
sinister purpose. A signal was given, and I was called on to answer. I had
no answer to make, but required that I should be suffered t