‘You are not going to get up again,’ said Albinia, catching hold of him, and in her dread of his committing himself to the mercy of the horses, returning unmeaning thanks to the carpenter’s urgent requests that she would take refuge in his house.

In fact, the scene was new and entertaining, and on the farther side of the road, sheltered by the carriage, the party were entirely apart from the throng, which was too much absorbed to notice them, only a few heads turning at the rattling of the harness, and the ladies were amused at the bright flame, and the dark figures glancing in and out of the light, the shouts of delight and the merry faces.

‘There’s Guy Fawkes,’ cried Albinia, as a procession of scarecrows were home on chairs amid thunders of acclamation; ’but whom have they besides?  Here are some new characters.’

‘Most lugubrious looking,’ said Genevieve.  ’I cannot make out the shouts.’

‘It is the Nabob,’ said Mr. Kendal.  ’Perhaps you do not know that is my alias.  This is my execution.’

The carpenter implored them to come in, and Mr. Hope added his entreaties, but Mr. Kendal would not leave the horses, and the ladies would not leave him; and they all stood still while his effigy was paraded round the knoll, the mark of every squib, the object of every invective that the rabble could roar out at the top of their voices.  Jesuits and Papists; Englishmen treated like blackamoor slaves in the Indies; honest folk driven out of house and home; such was the burthen of the cries that assailed the grim representative carried aloft, while the real man stood unmoved as a statue, his tall, powerful figure unstirred, his long driving-whip resting against his shoulder without betraying the slightest motion, neither firm lip nor steady eye changing.  Genevieve, with tears in her eyes, exclaimed, ‘Oh! this is madness!  Will no one tell them how wicked they are?’

‘Never mind, my dear,’ said Mr. Kendal, pressing the hand that in her fervour she had laid on his arm, ’they will come to their senses in time.  No, Mr. Hope, I beg you will not interfere, they are in no state for it; they have done no harm as yet.’

‘I wonder what the police are about?’ cried Albinia, indignantly.

‘They are too few to do any good,’ said Mr. Kendal.  ’It may be better that they are not incensing the mob.  It will all go off quietly when this explosion has relieved their feelings.’

They felt as if there were something grand in this perfectly dispassionate reception of the outrage, and they stood awed and silenced, Sophy leaning on him.

‘It will soon be over now,’ he said, ’they are poking up the name to receive me.’

‘Hark! what’s that?’

The mob came swaying back, and a rich voice swelled above all the din, ’Boys, boys, is it burning your friends you are?  Then, for the first time, Mr. Kendal started, and muttered, ’foolish lad! is he here?’