acts of which his principal certainly would disapprove, and
engaged auxiliaries whose alliance was scarcely creditable. Whose was
the hand which flung the potato which struck Sir Barnes Newcome, Bart.,
on the nose as he was haranguing the people from the Roebuck? How came
it that whenever Sir Barnes and his friends essayed to speak, such an
awful yelling and groaning took place in the crowd below, that the
words of those feeble orators were inaudible? Who smashed all the front
windows of the Roebuck? Colonel Newcome had not words to express his
indignation at proceedings so unfair. When Sir Barnes and staff were
hustled in the market-place and most outrageously shoved, jeered, and
jolted, the Colonel from the King's Arms organised a rapid sally, which
he himself headed with his bamboo cane; cut out Sir Barnes and his
followers from the hands of the mob, and addressed those ruffians in a
noble speech, of which bamboo-cane--Englishman--shame--fair-play, were
the most emphatic expressions. The mob cheered Old Tom as they called
him--they made way for Sir Barnes, who shrunk pale and shuddering back
into his hotel again--who always persisted in saying that that old
villain of a dragoon had planned both the assault and the rescue.

"When the dregs of the people--the scum of the rabble, sir, banded
together by the myrmidons of Sir Barnes Newcome, attacked us at the
King's Arms, and smashed ninety-six pounds' worth of glass at one
volley, besides knocking off the gold unicorn head and the tail of the
British lion; it was fine, sir," F. B. said, "to see how the Colonel
came forward, and the coolness of the old boy in the midst of the
action. He stood there in front, sir, with his old hat off, never so
much as once bobbing his old head, and I think he spoke rather better
under fire than he did when there was no danger. Between ourselves, he
ain't much of a speaker, the old Colonel; he hems and haws, and repeats
himself a good deal. He hasn't the gift of natural eloquence which
some men have, Pendennis. You should have heard my speech, sir, on the
Thursday in the Town Hall--that was something like a speech. Potts was
jealous of it, and always reported me most shamefully."

In spite of his respectful behaviour to the gentlemen in black coats,
his soup-tickets and his flannel-tickets, his own pathetic lectures and
his sedulous attendance at other folk's sermons, poor Barnes could
not keep up his credit with the serious interest at N