mfort Polly; but he could not
swerve from the truth, even for her.

"Give me the glass," said Mahony, and swept the line.--"No, no sign of
either of them. Perhaps they thought better of it after all.--Listen!
now they're singing--can you hear them? The MARSEILLAISE as I'm alive.
--Poor fools! Many of them are armed with nothing more deadly than
picks and shovels."

"And pikes," corrected Hempel. "Several carry pikes, sir."

"Ay, that's so, they've bin 'ammerin' out bits of old iron all the
mornin'," agreed Ocock. "It's said they 'aven't a quarter of a firearm
apiece. And the drillin'! Lord love yer! 'Alf of 'em don't know their
right 'and from their left. The troops 'ull make mincemeat of 'em, if
they come to close quarters."

"Oh, I hope not!" said Polly. "Oh, I do hope they won't get hurt."

Patting her hand, Mahony advised his wife to go indoors and resume her
household tasks. And since his lightest wish was a command, little
Polly docilely withdrew her arm and returned to her dishwashing. But
though she rubbed and scoured with her usual precision, her heart was
not in her work. Both on this day and the next she seemed to exist
solely in her two ears. The one strained to catch any scrap of news
about "poor Ned"; the other listened, with an even sharper anxiety, to
what went on in the store. Several further attempts were made to get
arms and provisions from Richard; and each time an angry scene ensued.
Close up beside the thin partition, her hands locked under her
cooking-apron, Polly sat and trembled for her husband. He had already
got himself talked about by refusing to back a Reform League; and now
she heard him openly declare to some one that he disapproved of the
terms of this League, from A to Z. Oh dear! If only he wouldn't. But
she was careful not to add to his worries by speaking of her fears. As
it was, he came to tea with a moody face.

The behaviour of the foraging parties growing more and more
threatening, Mahony thought it prudent to follow the general example
and put up his shutters. Wildly conflicting rumours were in the air.
One report said a contingent of Creswick dare-devils had arrived to
join forces with the insurgents; another that the Creswickers,
disgusted at finding neither firearms nor quarters provided for them,
had straightway turned and marched the twelve miles home again. For a
time it was asserted that Lalor, the Irish leader, had been bought over
by the government; then, just as