voked wars, and lived and fattened upon them. They have sent us to fight anybody and everybody, to crush French liberalism, and to maintain despotism all over Europe. They swarm over everything and cover all with their slime--over the state, over the House of Lords and over the People's House, over the army and navy, over everything. All the offices in the land are held by them, salaries and pensions are showered upon them from the national treasury, and still, like the horse leech, they stretch forth the greedy ravenous maw and cry Give! give!' For thirty years I have struggled to rouse the people against this evil, and, as some of you here know, have suffered much for my opinions in body and estate. I am now nearing the end of my pilgrimage, but I will die as I have lived ; my last few days shall be devoted to the people's cause. I hail your rising against your oppressors, and hope it may go on until there is not a tyrant to conquer. I have waited long for the dawn of the coming day, and it may be, old as I am, I shall yet see the glorious triumph of democracy!" The effect of the president's passionate harangue on the rough group around him was startling. Several stood upright as his appeal grew warmer, while those who were nearest pressed the hard, horny hand of the veteran as he resumed his seat. A brief interval of silence followed, and then the impetuous George Mellor sprang to his feet. "We'll reckon with the aristocrats at London in due time," he said, "but, friends, is there not some work nearer home to be done first? I know of no aristocrats who are bigger tyrants than our own masters, and I'm for squaring with them the first." "Our friend is right," said the Nottingham delegate, "and he is also wrong. Right in his longing to strike down the tyrants who would rob him of his daily bread and turn him out to starve in order that the gains may be poured with redoubled speed into their coffers; but wrong in thinking that they are his great oppressors. What means this cruel war which is carrying away the very flower of the country to rot in a foreign land? For what are we fighting, and what is to be the end of the conflict? Look at our closed ports, our decaying commerce, our starving workpeople. Now that we know our strength and have proved ourselves able to crush our local tyrants, let us go down to the root. Throughout Nottingham, Lancashire, Derbyshire, and Cheshire, our movement is everywhere powerful; we have thousands of weapons collected and stout arms to wield them. Our council is in daily communication with the societies in all the centres of disaffection, and urge a general rising in May. We say crush your tyrants at home, but remember also those who have ruined your commerce and destroyed the peace of your homes by this bloody war. Since John Westley was shot at Arnold, the feelings against the masters and their frames has redoubled in intensity and bitterness, and our men are inspired with desperate courage. The cavalry and the specials do their best to put us down or capture us, but we learn their secrets. The people everywhere sympathise with us, and we visit with swift and sure vengeance all who show themselves prominently in the ranks of the enemy. Many in our ranks advocate the policy of shooting such of the masters as are engaged in hunting and harrying us, but some hardly like the idea of murdering them in cold blood, and I must confess there is something revolting to the feelings of an Englishman about it." " 'Let them do what's right then," broke in Mellor, with his usual impetuosity, "if we're to stick at such squeamish nonsense as that, there will be nowt done. If they shoot at us, why should'nt we shoot at them? There's two in this neighbourhood that will have to be taken underhand, and at once. I mean Cartwright, of Rawfolds, and Horsfall, of Marsden. Most of you know how these two brag, day after day, at Huddersfield market and at home, and threaten what they'll do with the Luddites if they come near their places. We've sent a warning to both, and the only reply made by Cartwright is to get soldiers stationed in small detachments all over Liversedge and Heckmondwike, and our friends there tell us he still continues his bravado, and is talking about defending his mill. Now, I think it's time he had a lesson." To this suggestion there was at once a universal murmur of assent, and Weightman strengthened them in their resolution by saying that it was always "best to tackle such troublesome men as Cartwright at once." "What is to hinder us from attacking Rawfolds mill next?" asked Thorpe. We've done very little round there, and we are middling strong in that neighbourhood." There's just one thing to hinder us," said a delegate on the left of the president, "and that's all I know of." " And what's that, Job?" enquired Mellor. "We've not so many guns and pistols as I should like," replied the man addressed. 'If we're bahn to go at a mill with soldiers inside to defend it, we want something besides a few malls and hatchets. I am sorry to say me and my mates have not been doing much lately. Hartley's poorly again." Is he poorly or he's shewing t'white feather a bit?" asked another gruffly. "Nay, he's a true pluck'd 'un is Hartley," replied Hey, "but he's a lot of bairns, six or seven I think, and his wife is a poor delicate thing. Since they found it out that he's joined the Luddites they are sadly again it, altho' they're half starved. However, we'll see about it to-night, Hill. But to give us time to collect some more guns, I think it would be better to put Cartwright's affair off a bit.' "Well," said Mellor, 'would Saturday, the 11th of April, do? We should'nt be later than that. I shall never rest till that mill is in ruins. That will give Job and the other searching parties more time, and I don't think it would be right to put it off any longer." As the man you speak of is setting you at defiance, sooner you deal with him and better," observed Weightman. We have inspired such a wholesome dread of us at Nottingham, amongst all classes, that the threat of General Ludd is almost invariably sufficient. Our motions have been so rapid and our information respecting the possession of arms so accurate that few now dare to speak of us defiantly. As usual, rumour magnifies our deeds, and we are credited with much that we never do; but the authori. ties, I can assure you, are very much dissatified with the result of their efforts to put us down. Many who do sympathise with us taunt them with the little progress they make in crushing With regard to the proposed general rising, it will be as well to get together weapons of all kinds as soon as possible, and report to us their number and kind." us. A general conversation followed, and all agreed that Saturday, the 11th of April, would be the best day. Mellor at once arranged the method of attack. The time of meeting was to be eleven o'clock at night, and the place, a field at Cooper Bridge, not far from the obelisk called the Dumb steeple." Messengers were chosen to carry the decision of the delegates to all the neighbouring organisations, and after other matters of detail had been agreed upon, the gathering was brought to a close. CHAPTER VI. A RAID FOR ARMS. "That some mighty grief "O'er hangs thy soul thy every look proclaims; "True courage but from opposition grows; That strikes for right ?"-BROOKE. After the termination of the proceedings at the "Saint Crispin,” as stated in a previous chapter, the Luddites left the inn in the same stealthy manner in which they had entered it. The dark, moonless night was in their favour, but still they did not venture to leave the house in a body. They knew that the authorities had been warned that illegal meetings were held in some part of the town, and were therefore just at that time more than usually watchful, they therefore dropped out singly or in twos and threes, so that no one-even if watching the place-would have suspected anything unusual. As their homes were in many cases widely apart they were soon scattered over all parts of the town, or having cleared the more populous quarters, were trudging along the dark, quiet roads that led into the country beyond. Leaving the rest of the delegates to their own devices, we will follow two who are walking steadily on along the highway and anon through green lanes and fields, until, after a journey extending over about an hour, they suddenly pause at a very poor looking cottage which stands a little from the highway. All appears quiet in and around the little house, and it seems as if the inmates have retired to rest. After looking at the windows for a short time, one of the two travellers taps gently at the door. There is no response, and, after listening for a moment, he knocks smartly with his knuckles. Still all remains quiet in the interior for a brief space; then there is a slight shuffling of feet, and by and by, a cloth which stops up one of the broken panes being removed, a woman in a weak, frightened voice asks, "Who's there?" "Open the door and thou'lt see," replies one of the men, gruffly. "What do you want?" asked the woman timidly. "We want thy husband-open the door or we'll break it down." "William cannot come," said the woman, "he is poorly to-night." Open the door," replied the man savagely, "if you don't want it sending through in shivers." Open it, Mary," said some one inside. A sob and a faint cry follow, then the door is unfastened with evident reluctance, and the two men, one of them with an ugly oath on his lips, burst into the room. The place seems almost dark as they enter, but they can detect the dim outline of a figure bending over the few red cinders in the grate. They see that it is a man, and that he is trying to light a diminutive piece of candle, In a minute or two he places it upon the little round table at his elbow. It casts only a feeble, flickering light, but it suffices to show that the surroundings are wretched in the extreme. On one sideļis an old carved oak chest which looks as if it had served the purposes of two or three generations. This is the only article of furniture on that side of the house. There had evidently been pictures suspended on the white-washed walls, but there are none now. On the right of the fire-place is a bed, and these, with the table we have named, six or seven old stools and chairs, and a few kitchen utensils, complete the furniture, if we except a sort of table of home manufacture which stands under the window, on which are a tailor's goose and a pair of shears, which show what is the occupation of the pale, serious-looking occupant of the cottage, who, having placed the candle on the table, sinks into his chair again with a look of mingled despair and defiance, but utters no sound. The two intruders gazed at him also without speaking for a few minutes, but they soon recovered themselves. 64 How is it thou hast not been at the meeting to-night, Hartley ?" asked the milder looking of the two, in quiet tones. Because he was too poorly to go anywhere," replied the woman instantly, "and if he'd been well he would have gone to no meetings of yours if I could have hindered him." "Silence!" growled the other man fiercely. "Silence thyself, John Hill," said the tailor, breaking his strange silence, "is this my house or thine?" "Well, I've no objection to thee calling it thine," replied Hill, glancing contemptuously around at the squalid furniture. The unfeeling taunt seemed to agitate poor Hartley strongly, and he made a hasty movement towards Hill, but Hey interposed by placing his hand firmly on his shoulder, and the woman also rushed between the two. "Hill," said Job Hey, sternly," no more of this. Is this a time for brawling amongst those who should stand shoulder to shoulder? Hartley," he continued in soothing tones, "be quiet. We came to say that we have orders from the delegate meeting to-night to |