mself that it was an easy thing to do. He had not, of his own,
much capacity for the use of firearms; but he had four pound ten,
which should have gone to the payment of his rent, and of this four
pound ten, fifteen shillings secured the services of some handy man
out of the next parish. He had heard the question of murder freely
discussed among his neighbours, and by listening to others had
learned the general opinion that there was no danger in it. So he
came to a decision, and Mr. Morris was murdered.

So far the question was solved between this tenant and this landlord;
but each one of the neighbours, as he thought of it, felt himself
bound to secrecy _pro bono publico_. There was a certain comfort in
this, and poor Bob Morris's death seemed likely to be passed over
with an easy freedom from suspicion. Any man might be got rid of
silently, and there need be no injurious results. But men among
themselves began to talk somewhat too freely, and an awe grew among
them as this man and that man were named as objectionable. And the
men so named were not all landlords or even agents. This man was a
sheriff's officer, and that a gamekeeper. The sheriffs' officers and
gamekeepers were not all murdered, but they were named, and a feeling
of terror crept cold round the hearts of those who heard the names.
Who was to be the keeper of the list and decide finally as to the
victims? Then suddenly a man went, and no one knew why he went. He
was making a fence between two fields, and it was whispered that he
had been cautioned not to make the fence. At any rate he had been
stoned to death, and though there must have been three at least at
the work, no one knew who had stoned him. Men began to whisper among
each other, and women also, and at last it was whispered to them that
they had better not whisper at all. Then they began to feel that not
only was secrecy to be exacted from them, but they were not to be
admitted to any participation in the secrecy.

And with such of the gentry as were left there had grown up
precautions which could not but fill the minds of the peasantry with
a vague sense of fear. They went about with rifle in their hands, and
were always accompanied by police. They had thick shutters made to
their windows, and barred themselves within their houses. Those who
but a few months since had been the natural friends of the people,
now appeared everywhere in arms against them. If it was necessary
that there should be