 Lord Mansfield's
house in Bloomsbury Square.
    Soon afterwards there came another, and another, and then the first returned
again, and so, by little and little, their tale was this: - That the mob
gathering round Lord Mansfield's house, had called on those within to open the
door, and receiving no reply (for Lord and Lady Mansfield were at that moment
escaping by the backway), forced an entrance according to their usual custom.
That they then began to demolish the house with great fury, and setting fire to
it in several parts, involved in a common ruin the whole of the costly
furniture, the plate and jewels, a beautiful gallery of pictures, the rarest
collection of manuscripts ever possessed by any one private person in the world,
and worse than all, because nothing could replace this loss, the great Law
Library, on almost every page of which were notes in the Judge's own hand, of
inestimable value, - being the results of the study and experience of his whole
life. That while they were howling and exulting round the fire, a troop of
soldiers, with a magistrate among them, came up, and being too late (for the
mischief was by that time done), began to disperse the crowd. That the Riot Act
being read, and the crowd still resisting, the soldiers received orders to fire,
and levelling their muskets shot dead at the first discharge six men and a
woman, and wounded many persons; and loading again directly, fired another
volley, but over the people's heads it was supposed, as none were seen to fall.
That thereupon, and daunted by the shrieks and tumult, the crowd began to
disperse, and the soldiers went away, leaving the killed and wounded on the
ground: which they had no sooner done than the rioters came back again, and
taking up the dead bodies, and the wounded people, formed into a rude
procession, having the bodies in the front. That in this order they paraded off
with a horrible merriment; fixing weapons in the dead men's hands to make them
look as if alive; and preceded by a fellow ringing Lord Mansfield's dinner-bell
with all his might.
    The scouts reported further, that this party meeting with some others who
had been at similar work elsewhere, they all united into one, and drafting off a
few men with the killed and wounded, marched away to Lord Mansfield's country
seat at Caen Wood, between Hampstead and Highgate; bent upon destroying that
house likewise, and lighting up a great fire
