not done its work, and it was simply a collection of reckless men,
thieves, and vagabonds.



CHAPTER III: A DOMESTIC STORM


Great was the surprise of Dame Anthony when, on sending down her
servant with a letter to Jack Stilwell, the woman returned, saying
that he had left his lodging two days before and had not returned.
All his things had been left behind, and it was evident that when
he went out he had no intention of leaving. The woman of the house
said that Master Stilwell was a steady and regular lodger, and that
she could not but think something had happened to him. Of course
she didn't know, but all the town were talking of the men who had
been taken away by the press gang, and she thought they must have
clapped hands on her lodger.

Dame Anthony at once jumped at that conclusion. The pressing of fifty
men had indeed made a great stir in the town during the last two
days. The mayor's office had been thronged by angry women complaining
of their husbands or sons being dragged away; and the mayor had
been the object of many threats and much indignation, and had the
evening before returned home bespattered with mud, having been pelted
on his way from the town hall by the women, and having only been
saved from more serious assaults by the exertions of the constables.

Dame Anthony had been surprised that her husband had taken these
things so quietly. Some of the women had indeed been seized and