of faith in his theories of universal benevolence and emancipation.

She thought, if the times had not been such as to bring them into
action, Ambrose would have outgrown and modified all that was
dangerous in his theories, and that they would have remained mere
talk, the ebullition of his form of knight-errantry; for it was
generous indignation and ardour that chiefly led him astray, and
Eustace was always his double: but there were some incidents at the
time which roused him to fury. Lewthwayte was a Cumberland man, who
had inherited the stock and the last years of a lease of a farm on
Lord Erymanth's property; he had done a good deal for it, and
expended money on the understanding that he should have the lease
renewed, but he was a man of bold, independent northern tongue, and
gave great offence to his lordship, who was used to be listened to
with a sort of feudal deference. He was of the fierce old Norse
blood, and his daughters were tall, fair, magnificent young women,
not at all uneducated nor vulgar, and it was the finding that my
brothers were becoming intimate at his farm that made Lord Erymanth
refuse to renew the lease and turn the family out so harshly, and
with as little notice as possible.

The cruelty, as they thought it, was, Miss Woolmer said, most ill-
judged, and precipitated the very thing that was dreaded. The youths
rushed into the marriage with the daughters, and cast in their lot
with all that could overturn the existing order of things, but Miss
Woolmer did not believe they had had anything to do with the rick-
burning or machine-breaking. All that was taken out of their hands
by more brutal, ignorant demagogues. They were mere visionaries and
enthusiasts according to her, and she said the two wives were very
noble-looking, high-spirited young women. She had gone to see them