became out of the question for them to
interfere with any effect to stop the lawless proceedings of the
rioters, so that the infuriated populace had it all their own way, and
in a straggling, disorderly-looking kind of procession they moved off,
vowing vengeance as they went against Varney the vampyre.

Hopeless as Mr. Chillingworth thought it was to interfere with any
degree of effect in the proceedings of the mob, he still could not
reconcile it to himself to be absent from a scene which he now felt
certain had been produced by his own imprudence, so he went on with the
crowd, endeavouring, as he did so, by every argument that could be
suggested to him to induce them to abstain from the acts of violence
they contemplated. He had a hope, too, that when they reached Sir
Francis Varney's, finding him not within, as probably would be the case,
as by that time he would have started to meet Henry Bannerworth on the
ground, to fight the duel, he might induce the mob to return and forego
their meditated violence.

And thus was it that, urged on by a multitude of persons, the unhappy
surgeon was expiating, both in mind and person, the serious mistakes he
had committed in trusting a secret to his wife.

Let it not be supposed that we for one moment wish to lay down a general
principle as regards the confiding secrets to ladies, because from the
beginning of the world it has become notorious how well they keep them,
and with what admirable discretion, tact, and forethought this fairest
portion of humanity conduct themselves.

We know how few Mrs. Chillingworths there are in the world, and have but
to regret that our friend the doctor should, in his matrimonial
adventure, have met with such a specimen.

CHAPTER XL.

THE POPULAR RIOT.--SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S DANGER.--THE SUGGESTION AND ITS
RESULTS.

[Illustration]

Such, then, were the circumstances which at once altered the whole
aspect of the affairs, and, from private and domestic causes of very
deep annoyance, led to public results of a character which seemed likely
to involve the whole country-side in the greatest possible confusion.

But while we blame Mr. Chillingworth for being so indiscreet as to
communicate the secret of such a person as Varney the vampyre to his
wife, we trust in a short time to be enabled to show that he made as
much reparation as it was possible to make for the mischief he had
unintentionally committed. And now as he struggled onward