"But work grew scarce, while bread grew dear,And wages lessened, too;For Irish hordes were bidders here,Our half-paid work to do."
CORN LAW RHYMES.
Margaret was shown into the drawing-room. It had returned into itsnormal state of bag and covering. The windows were half open becauseof the heat, and the Venetian blinds covered the glass,--so that a graygrim light, reflected from the pavement below, threw all the shadowswrong, and combined with the green-tinged upper light to make evenMargaret"s own face, as she caught it in the mirrors, look ghastly andwan. She sat and waited; no one came. Every now and then, the windseemed to bear the distant multitudinous sound nearer; and yet therewas no wind! It died away into profound stillness between whiles.
Fanny came in at last.
"Mamma will come directly, Miss Hale. She desired me to apologise toyou as it is. Perhaps you know my brother has imported hands fromIreland, and it has irritated the Milton people excessively--as if hehadn"t a right to get labour where he could; and the stupid wretches herewouldn"t work for him; and now they"ve frightened these poor Irishstarvelings so with their threats, that we daren"t let them out. You maysee them huddled in that top room in the mill,--and they"re to sleepthere, to keep them safe from those brutes, who will neither work norlet them work. And mamma is seeing about their food, and John isspeaking to them, for some of the women are crying to go back. Ah!
here"s mamma!"
Mrs. Thornton came in with a look of black sternness on her face,which made Margaret feel she had arrived at a bad time to trouble herwith her request. However, it was only in compliance with Mrs.
Thornton"s expressed desire, that she would ask for whatever they mightwant in the progress of her mother"s illness. Mrs. Thornton"s browcontracted, and her mouth grew set, while Margaret spoke with gentlemodesty of her mother"s restlessness, and Dr. Donaldson"s wish that sheshould have the relief of a water-bed. She ceased. Mrs. Thornton didnot reply immediately. Then she started up and exclaimed-"
They"re at the gates! Call John, Fanny,--call him in from the mill!
They"re at the gates! They"ll batter them in! Call John, I say!"
And simultaneously, the gathering tramp--to which she had beenlistening, instead of heeding Margaret"s words--was heard just rightoutside the wall, and an increasing din of angry voices raged behind thewooden barrier, which shook as if the unseen maddened crowd madebattering-rams of their bodies, and retreated a short space only to comewith more united steady impetus against it, till their great beats madethe strong gates quiver, like reeds before the wind.
The women gathered round the windows, fascinated to look on thescene which terrified them. Mrs. Thornton, the women-servants,Margaret,--all were there. Fanny had returned, screaming up-stairs as ifpursued at every step, and had thrown herself in hysterical sobbing onthe sofa. Mrs. Thornton watched for her son, who was still in the mill.
He came out, looked up at them--the pale cluster of faces--and smiledgood courage to them, before he locked the factory-door. Then he calledto one of the women to come down and undo his own door, whichFanny had fastened behind her in her mad flight. Mrs. Thornton herselfwent. And the sound of his well-known and commanding voice, seemedto have been like the taste of blood to the infuriated multitude outside.
Hitherto they had been voiceless, wordless, needing all their breath fortheir hard-labouring efforts to break down the gates. But now, hearinghim speak inside, they set up such a fierce unearthly groan, that evenMrs. Thornton was white with fear as she preceded him into the room.
He came in a little flushed, but his eyes gleaming, as in answer to thetrumpet-call of danger, and with a proud look of defiance on his face,that made him a noble, if not a handsome man. Margaret had alwaysdreaded lest her courage should fail her in any emergency, and sheshould be proved to be, what she dreaded lest she was--a coward. Butnow, in this real great time of reasonable fear and nearness of terror, sheforgot herself, and felt only an intense sympathy--intense to painfulness-in the interests of the moment.
Mr. Thornton came frankly forwards:
"I"m sorry, Miss Hale, you have visited us at this unfortunate moment,when, I fear, you may be involved in whatever risk we have to bear.
Mother! hadn"t you better go into the back rooms? I"m not sure whetherthey may not have made their way from Pinner"s Lane into the stable-yard; but if not, you will be safer there than here. Go Jane!" continuedhe, addressing the upper-servant. And she went, followed by the others.
"I stop here!" said his mother. "Where you are, there I stay." And indeed,retreat into the back rooms was of no avail; the crowd had surroundedthe outbuildings at the rear, and were sending forth their: awfulthreatening roar behind. The servants retreated into the garrets, withmany a cry and shriek. Mr. Thornton smiled scornfully as he heardthem. He glanced at Margaret, standing all by herself at the windownearest the factory. Her eyes glittered, her colour was deepened oncheek and lip. As if she felt his look, she turned to him and asked aquestion that had been for some time in her mind:
"Where are the poor imported work-people? In the factory there?"
"Yes! I left them cowered up in a small room, at the head of a backflight of stairs; bidding them run all risks, and escape down there, ifthey heard any attack made on the mill-doors. But it is not them--it isme they want."
"When can the soldiers be here?" asked his mother, in a low but notunsteady voice.
He took out his watch with the same measured composure with whichhe did everything. He made some little calculation:
"Supposing Williams got straight off when I told him, and hadn"t tododge about amongst them--it must be twenty minutes yet."
"Twenty minutes!" said his mother, for the first time showing her terrorin the tones of her voice.
"Shut down the windows instantly, mother," exclaimed he: "the gateswon"t bear such another shock. Shut down that window, Miss Hale."
Margaret shut down her window, and then went to assist Mrs.
Thornton"s trembling fingers.