pressgang with a struggling sailor in their clutches, with nothing
but his trousers on--his shirt riven from his back in the fury.
Syne came the rest of the gang and their officers, scattered as it
were with a tempest of mud and stones, pursued and battered by a
troop of desperate women and weans, whose fathers and brothers were
in jeopardy. And these were followed by the wailing wife of the
pressed man, with her five bairns, clamouring in their agony to
heaven against the king and government for the outrage. I couldna
listen to the fearful justice of their outcry, but sat down in a
corner of the council-chamber with my fingers in my ears.

In a little while a shout of triumph rose from the mob, and we heard
them returning, and I felt, as it were, relieved; but the sound of
their voices became hoarse and terrible as they drew near, and, in a
moment, I heard the jingle of twenty broken windows rattle in the
street. My heart misgave me; and, indeed, it was my own windows.
They left not one pane unbroken; and nothing kept them from
demolishing the house to the ground-stone but the exhortations of
Major Pipe, who, on hearing the uproar, was up and out, and did all
in his power to arrest the fury of the tumult. It seems, the mob
had taken it into their heads that I had signed what they called the
press-warrants; and on driving the gang out of the town, and
rescuing the man, they came to revenge themselves on me and mine;
which is the cause that made me say it was a miraculous instinct
that led Mrs Pawkie to take the family to Mr Pittle's; for, had they
been in the house, it is not to be told what the consequences might
have been.

Before morning the riot was ended, but the damage to my house was
very great; and I was intending, as the public had done the deed,