VARNEY, THE VAMPYRE;
                                    OR,
                             THE FEAST OF BLOOD.

                                Chapter XLIX.

THE MOB'S ARRIVAL AT SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S. -- THE ATTEMPT TO GAIN ADMISSION.


     The soldiery had been sent for from their principal station near the
churchyard, and had advanced with some degree of reluctance to quell what they
considered as nothing better nor worse than a drunken brawl at a public-house,
which they really considered they ought not to be called to interfere with.

     When, however, the party reached the spot, and heard what a confusion
there was, and saw in what numbers the rioters were assembling, it became
evident to them that the case was of a more serious complexion than they had
at first imagined, and consequently they felt that their professional dignity
was not so much compromised with their interference with the lawless
proceedings.

     Some of the constabulary of the town were there, and to them the soldiers
promised they would hand what prisoners they took, at the same time that they
made a distinct condition that they were not be be troubled with their
custody, nor in any way further annoyed in the business beyond taking care
that they did not absolutely escape, after being once secured.

     This was all that the civil authorities of the town required, and, in
fact, they hoped that, after making prisoners of a few of the ringleaders of
the riotous proceedings, the rest would disperse, and prevent the necessity of
capturing them.

     Be it known, however, that both military and civil authorities were
completely ignorant of the dreadful outrage against all common decency, which
had been committed within the public- house.

     The door was well guarded, and the question now was how the rioters were
to be made to come down stairs, and be captured; and this was likely to remain
a question, so long as no means were adopted to make them descend.  So that,
after a time, it was agreed that a couple of troopers would march up stairs
with a constable, to enable him to secure any one who seemed a principal in
the riot.

     But this only had the effect of driving those who were in the second-
floor, and saw the approach of the two soldiers, whom they thought were backed
by the whole of their comrades, up a narrow staircase, to a third-floor,
rather consisting of lofts than of actual rooms; but still, for the time, it
was a refuge; and owning to the extreme narrowness of the approach to it,
which consisted of nearly a perpendicular staircase, with any degree of tact
or method, it might have been admirably defended.

     In the hurry and scramble, all the lights were left behind; and when the
two soldiers and constables entered the room where the corpse had lain, they
became, for the first time, aware of what a horrible purpose had been carried
out by the infuriated mob.

     The sight was one of perfect horror, and hardened to scenes which might
strike other people as being somewhat of the terrific as these soldiers might
be supposed to be by their very profession, they actually sickened at the
sight which the mutilated corpse presented, and turned aside with horror.

     These feelings soon gave way to anger and animosity against the crowd who
could be guilty of such an atrocious outrage; and, for the first time, a
strong and interested vengeance against the mob pervaded the breasts of those
who were brought to act against it.

     One of the soldiers ran down stairs to the door, and reported the scene
which was to be seen above.  A determination was instantly come to, to capture
as many as possible of those who had been concerned in so diabolical an
outrage, and leaving a guard of five men at the door, and remainder of the
party ascended the staircase, determined upon storming the last refuge of the
rioters, and dragging them to justice.

     The report, however, of these proceedings that were taking place at the
inn, spread quickly over the whole town; and soon as large a mob of the
disorderly and the idle as the place could at all afford was assembled outside
the inn.

     This mob appeared appeared, for a time, inertly to watch the proceedings.
It seemed rather a hazardous thing to interfere with the soldiers, whose
carbines look formidable and troublesome weapons.

     With true mob courage, therefore, they left the minority of their
comrades, who were within the house, to their fate; and after a whispered
conference from one to the other, they suddenly turned in a body, and began to
make for the outskirts of the town.

     They then separated, as if by common consent, and straggled out into the
open country by twos and threes, consolidating again into a mass when they had
got some distance off, and clear of any exertions that could be made by the
soldiery to stay them.

     The cry then rose of "Down with Sir Francis Varney -- slay him -- burn
his house -- death to all vampyres!" and, at a rapid pace, they proceeded in
the direction of his mansion.

     We will leave this mob, however, for the present, and turn our attention
to those who are at the inn, and are certainly in a position of some jeopardy.
Their numbers were not great, and they were unarmed; certainly, their best
chance would have been to have surrendered at discretion; but that was a
measure which, if the sober ones had felt inclined to, those who were
infuriated and half maddened with drink would not have acceded to on any
account.

     A furious resistance was, therefore, fairly to be expected; and what
means the soldiery were likely to use for the purpose of storming this last
retreat was a matter of rather anxious conjecture.

     In the case of a regular enemy, there would not, perhaps, have been much
difficulty; but here the capture of certain persons, and not their
destruction, was the object; and how that was to be accomplished by fair
means, certainly was a question which nobody felt very competent to solve.

     Determination, however, will do wonders; and although the rioters
numbered over forty, notwithstanding all their desertions, and not above
seventeen or eighteen soldiers marched into the inn, we shall perceive that
they succeeded in accomplishing their object without any manoeuvering at all.

     The space in which the rioters were confined was low, narrow, and
inconvenient, as well as dark, for the lights on the staircase cast up that
height but very insufficient rays.

     Weapons of defence they found but very few, and yet there were some
which, to do them but common credit, they used as effectually as possible.

     These attics, or lofts, were used as lumber-rooms, and had been so for
years, so that there was a collection of old boxes, broken pieces of
furniture, and other matters, which will, in defiance of everything and
everybody, collect in a house.

     These were formidable means of defence, if not of offence, down a very
narrow staircase, had they been used with judgment.

     Some of the rioters, who were only just drunk enough to be fool-hardy,
collected a few of these articles at the top of the staircase, and swore they
would smash anybody who should attempt to come up to them, a threat easier
uttered than executed.

     And besides, after all, if their position had ever been so impregnable,
they must come down eventually, or be starved out.

     But the soldiers were not at liberty to adopt so slow a process of
overcoming their enemy, and up the second-floor staircase they went, with a
determination of making short work of the business.

     They paused a moment, by word of command, on the landing, and then, after
this slight pause, the word was given to advance.

     Now when men will advance, in spite of anything and everything, it is no
easy matter to stop them, and he who was foremost among the military would as
soon thought of hesitation to ascend the narrow staircase before him, when
ordered so to do, as paying the national debt.  On he went, and down came a
great chest, which, falling against his feet, knocked him down as he attempted
to scramble over it.

     "Fire," said the officer; and it appeared that he had made some
arrangements as to how the order was to be obeyed, for the second man fired
his carbine, and then scrambled over his prostrate comrade; after which he
stooped, and the third fired his carbine likewise, and then hurried forward in
the same manner.

     At the first sound of the fire arms the rioters were taken completely by
surprise; they had not had the least notion of affairs getting to such a
length.  The smell of the powder, the loud report, and the sensation of
positive danger that accompanied these phenomena, alarmed them most
terrifically; so that, in point of fact, with the exception of the empty chest
that was thrown down in the way of the first soldier, no further idea of
defence seemed in any way to find a place in the hearts of the besieged.

     They scrambled one over the other in their eagerness to get as far as
possible from immediate danger, which, of course, they conceived existed in
the most imminent degree the nearest to the door.

     Such was the state of terror into which they were thrown, that each one
at the moment believed himself shot, and the soldiers had overcome all the
real difficulties in getting possession of what might thus be called the
citadel of the inn, before those men who had been so valorous a short time
since recovered from the tremendous fright into which they had been thrown.

     We need hardly say that the carbines were loaded, but with blank
cartridges, for there was neither a disposition nor a necessity for taking the
lives of these misguided people.

     It was the suddenness and the steadiness of the attack that had done all
the mischief to their cause; but now, ere they recovered from the surprise of
having their position so completely taken by storm, they were handed down
stairs, one by one, from soldier to soldier, and into the custody of the civil
authorities.

     In order to secure the safe keeping of so large a body of prisoners, the
constables, who were in a great minority, placed handcuffs upon some of the
most capable of the resistance; so what with those who were thus secured, and
those who were terrified into submission, there was not a man of all the lot
who had taken refuge in the attics of the public-house but was a prisoner.

     At the sound of fire-arms, the women who were outside the inn had, of
course, raised a prodigious clamour.

     They believed directly that every bullet must have done some serious
mischief to the townspeople, and it was only upon one of the soldiers, a
non-commissioned officer, who was below, assuring them of the innoxious nature
of the proceeding which restored anything like equanimity.

     "Silence!" he cried; "what are you howling about?  Do you fancy that
we've nothing better to do than to shoot a parcel of fellows that are not
worth the bullets that would be lodged in their confounded carcases?"

     "But we heard the gun," said a woman.

     "Of course you did; it's the powder that makes the noise, not the bullet.
You'll see them all brought out safe wind and limb."

     This assurance satisfied the women to a certain extent, and such had been
their fear that they should have had to look upon the spectacle of death, or
of grevious wounds, that they were comparatively quite satisfied when they saw
husbands, fathers, and brothers, only in the custody of the town officers.

     And very sheepish some of the fellows looked, when they were handed down
and handcuffed, and the more especially when they had been routed only by a
few blank cartridges -- that sixpennyworth of powder had defeated them.

     They were marched off to the town gaol, guarded by the military, who now
probably fancied that their night's work was over, and that the most turbulent
and troublesome spirits in the town had been secured.

     Such, however, was not the case, for no sooner had comparative order been
restored, than common observation pointed to a dull red glare in the southern
sky.

     In a few more minutes there came in stragglers from the open country,
shouting "Fire! fire!" with all their might.

                                     -+-

 Next Time: The Mob's Arrival at Sir Francis Varney's. -- The Attempt to Gain
 Admission.

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The Varney Project                Chapter  49             Ver 1.00  02/19/1996
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