 Friday morning, and
were eagerly bent upon the work of devastation in Duke-street and Warwick-street
at night, were, in the mass, the same. Allowing for the chance accessions of
which any crowd is morally sure in a town where there must always be a large
number of idle and profligate persons, one and the same mob was at both places.
Yet they spread themselves in various directions when they dispersed in the
afternoon, made no appointment for re-assembling, had no definite purpose or
design, and indeed, for anything they knew, were scattered beyond the hope of
future union.
    At The Boot, which, as has been shown, was in a manner the head-quarters of
the rioters, there were not, upon this Friday night, a dozen people. Some slept
in the stable and outhouses, some in the common room, some two or three in beds.
The rest were in their usual homes or haunts. Perhaps not a score in all lay in
the adjacent fields and lanes, and under haystacks, or near the warmth of
brick-kilns, who had not their accustomed place of rest beneath the open sky. As
to the public ways within the town, they had their ordinary nightly occupants,
and no others; the usual amount of vice and wretchedness, but no more.
    The experience of one evening, however, had taught the reckless leaders of
disturbance, that they had but to show themselves in the streets, to be
immediately surrounded by materials which they could only have kept together
when their aid was not required, at great risk, expense, and trouble. Once
possessed of this secret, they were as confident as if twenty thousand men,
devoted to their will, had been encamped about them, and assumed a confidence
which could not have been surpassed, though that had really been the case. All
day, Saturday, they remained quiet. On Sunday, they rather studied how to keep
their men within call, and in full hope, than to follow out, by any fierce
measure, their first day's proceedings.
    »I hope,« said Dennis, as, with a loud yawn, he raised his body from a heap
of straw on which he had been sleeping, and supporting his head upon his hand,
appealed to Hugh on Sunday morning, »that Muster Gashford allows some rest?
Perhaps he'd have us at work again already, eh?«
    »It's not his way to let matters drop, you may be sure of that,« growled
Hugh in answer. »I'm
