Sybil, Or, The Two Nations

by Earl of Beaconsfield Benjamin Disraeli

  It was night: clear and serene, though the moon had not risen; and avast concourse of persons were assembling on Mowbray Moor. The chiefgathering collected in the vicinity of some huge rocks, one of which,pre-eminent above its fellows, and having a broad flat head, on whichsome twenty persons might easily stand at the same time, was called theDruid's Altar. The ground about was strewn with stony fragments, coveredtonight with human beings, who found a convenient resting-place amidthese ruins of some ancient temple or relics of some ancient world. Theshadowy concourse increased, the dim circle of the nocturnal assemblageeach moment spread and widened; there was the hum and stir of manythousands. Suddenly in the distance the sound of martial music: andinstantly, quick as the lightning and far more wild, each person presentbrandished a flaming torch, amid a chorus of cheers, that, renewedand resounding, floated far away over the broad bosom of the duskwilderness.

  The music and the banners denoted the arrival of the leaders of thepeople. They mounted the craggy ascent that led to the summit ofthe Druid's Altar, and there, surrounded by his companions, amid theenthusiastic shouts of the multitude, Walter Gerard came forth toaddress a TORCH-LIGHT MEETING.

  His tall form seemed colossal in the uncertain and flickering light, hisrich and powerful voice reached almost to the utmost limit of his vastaudience, now still with expectation and silent with excitement. Theirfixed and eager glance, the mouth compressed with fierce resolution ordistended by novel sympathy, as they listened to the exposition of theirwrongs, and the vindication of the sacred rights of labour--the shoutsand waving of the torches as some bright or bold phrase touched them tothe quick--the cause, the hour, the scene--all combined to render theassemblage in a high degree exciting.

  "I wonder if Warner will speak to-night," said Dandy Mick to Devilsdust.

  "He can't pitch it in like Gerard," replied his companion.

  "But he is a trump in the tender," said the Dandy. "The Handlooms looksto him as their man, and that's a powerful section."

  "If you come to the depth of a question, there's nothing like StephenMorley," said Devilsdust. "'Twould take six clergymen any day to settlehim. He knows the principles of society by heart. But Gerard gets holdof the passions."

  "And that's the way to do the trick," said Dandy Mick. "I wish he wouldsay march, and no mistake."

  "There is a great deal to do before saying that," said Devilsdust. "Wemust have discussion, because when it comes to reasoning, the oligarchshave not got a leg to stand on and we must stop the consumption ofexciseable articles, and when they have no tin to pay the bayonets andtheir b--y police, they are dished."

  "You have a long head, Dusty," said Mick.

  "Why I have been thinking of it ever since I knew two and two madefour," said his friend. "I was not ten years old when I said tomyself--It's a pretty go this, that I should be toiling in a shoddy-holeto pay the taxes for a gentleman what drinks his port wine and stretcheshis legs on a Turkey carpet. Hear, hear," he suddenly exclaimed, asGerard threw off a stinging sentence. "Ah! that's the man for thepeople. You will see, Mick, whatever happens, Gerard is the man who willalways lead."

  Gerard had ceased amid enthusiastic plaudits, and Warner--that hand-loomweaver whom the reader may recollect, and who had since become a popularleader and one of the principal followers of Gerard--had also addressedthe multitude. They had cheered and shouted, and voted resolutions, andthe business of the night was over. Now they were enjoined to dispersein order and depart in peace. The band sounded a triumphant retreat; theleaders had descended from the Druid's Altar; the multitude were meltingaway, bearing back to the town their high resolves and panting thoughts,and echoing in many quarters the suggestive appeals of those whohad addressed them. Dandy Mick and Devilsdust departed together; thebusiness of their night had not yet commenced, and it was an importantone.

  They took their way to that suburb whither Gerard and Morley repairedthe evening of their return from Marney Abbey; but it was not on thisoccasion to pay a visit to Chaffing Jack and his brilliant saloon.Winding through many obscure lanes, Mick and his friend at length turnedinto a passage which ended in a square court of a not inconsiderablesize, and which was surrounded by high buildings that had the appearanceof warehouses. Entering one of these, and taking up a dim lamp thatwas placed on the stone of an empty hearth, Devilsdust led his friendthrough several unoccupied and unfurnished rooms, until he came to onein which there were some signs of occupation.

  "Now, Mick," said he, in a very earnest, almost solemn tone, "are youfirm?"

  "All right, my hearty," replied his friend, though not without someaffectation of ease.

  "There is a good deal to go through," said Devilsdust. "It tries a man."

  "You don't mean that?"

  "But if you are firm, all's right. Now I must leave you."

  "No, no, Dusty," said Mick.

  "I must go," said Devilsdust; "and you must rest here till you aresent for. Now mind--whatever is bid you, obey; and whatever you see, bequiet. There," and Devilsdust taking a flask out of his pocket, held itforth to his friend, "give a good pull, man, I can't leave it you, forthough your heart must be warm, your head must be cool," and so sayinghe vanished.

  Notwithstanding the animating draught, the heart of Mick Radleytrembled. There are some moments when the nervous system defies evenbrandy. Mick was on the eve of a great and solemn incident, roundwhich for years his imagination had gathered and brooded. Often in thatimagination he had conceived the scene, and successfully confronted itsperils or its trials. Often had the occasion been the drama of many atriumphant reverie, but the stern presence of reality had dispelled allhis fancy and all his courage. He recalled the warning of Julia, who hadoften dissuaded him from the impending step; that warning received withso much scorn and treated with so much levity. He began to think thatwomen were always right; that Devilsdust was after all a dangerouscounsellor; he even meditated over the possibility of a retreat. Helooked around him: the glimmering lamp scarcely indicated the outline ofthe obscure chamber. It was lofty, nor in the obscurity was it possiblefor the eye to reach the ceiling, which several huge beams seemed tocross transversally, looming in the darkness. There was apparently nowindows, and the door by which they had entered was not easily tobe recognised. Mick had just taken up the lamp and was surveying hisposition, when a slight noise startled him, and looking round he beheldat some little distance two forms which he hoped were human.

  Enveloped in dark cloaks and wearing black masks, a conical cap of thesame colour adding to their considerable height, each held a torch. Theystood in silence--two awful sentries.

  Their appearance appalled, their stillness terrified, Mick: he remainedwith his mouth open and the lamp in his extended arm. At length, unableany longer to sustain the solemn mystery, and plucking up his naturalaudacity, he exclaimed, "I say, what do you want?"

  All was silent.

  "Come, come," said Mick much alarmed; "none of this sort of thing. Isay, you must speak though."

  The figures advanced: they stuck their torches in a niche that was by;and then they placed each of them a hand on the shoulder of Mick.

  "No, no; none of that," said Mick, trying to disembarrass himself.

  But, notwithstanding this fresh appeal, one of the silent masks pinionedhis arms; and in a moment the eyes of the helpless friend of Devilsdustwere bandaged.

  Conducted by these guides, it seemed to Mick that he was traversinginterminable rooms, or rather galleries, for once stretching out hisarm, while one of his supporters had momentarily quitted him to opensome gate or door, Mick touched a wall. At length one of the masksspoke, and said, "In five minutes you will be in the presence of theSEVEN--prepare."

  At this moment rose the sound of distant voices singing in concert, andgradually increasing in volume as Mick and the masks advanced. One ofthese attendants now notifying to their charge that he must kneel down,Mick found he rested on a cushion, while at the same time his arms stillpinioned, he seemed to be left alone.

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bsp; The voices became louder and louder; Mick could distinguish the wordsand burthen of the hymn; he was sensible that many persons were enteringthe apartment; he could distinguish the measured tread of some solemnprocession. Round the chamber, more than once, they moved with slow andawful step. Suddenly that movement ceased; there was a pause of a fewminutes; at length a voice spoke. "I denounce John Briars."

  "Why?" said another.

  "He offers to take nothing but piece-work; the man who does piece-workis guilty of less defensible conduct than a drunkard. The worst passionsof our nature are enlisted in support of piece-work. Avarice, meanness,cunning, hypocrisy, all excite and feed upon the miserable votary whoworks by the task and not by the hour. A man who earns by piece-workforty shillings per week, the usual wages for day-work being twenty,robs his fellows of a week's employment; therefore I denounce JohnBriars."

  "Let it go forth," said the other voice; "John Briars is denounced.If he receive another week's wages by the piece, he shall not have theoption of working the week after for time. No.87, see to John Briars."

  "I denounce Claughton and Hicks," said another voice.

  "Why?"

  "They have removed Gregory Ray from being a superintendent, because hebelonged to this lodge."

  "Brethren, is it your pleasure that there shall be a turn out for tendays at Claughton and Hicks?"

  "It is our pleasure," cried several voices.

  "No.34, give orders to-morrow that the works at Claughton and Hicks stoptill further orders."

  "Brethren," said another voice, "I propose the expulsion from thisUnion, of any member who shall be known to boast of his superiorability, as to either the quantity or quality of work he can do, eitherin public or private company. Is it your pleasure?"

  "It is our pleasure."

  "Brethren," said a voice that seemed a presiding one, "before we proceedto the receipt of the revenue from the different districts of thislodge, there is I am informed a stranger present, who prays to beadmitted into our fraternity. Are all robed in the mystic robe? Are allmasked in the secret mask?"

  "All

  "Then let us pray!" And thereupon after a movement which intimated thatall present were kneeling, the presiding voice offered up an extemporaryprayer of great power and even eloquence. This was succeeded by theHymn of Labour, and at its conclusion the arms of the neophyte wereunpinioned, and then his eyes were unbandaged.

  Mick found himself in a lofty and spacious room lighted with manytapers. Its walls were hung with black cloth; at a table covered withthe same material, were seated seven persons in surplices and masked,the president on a loftier seat; above which on a pedestal was askeleton complete. On each side of the skeleton was a man robed andmasked, holding a drawn sword; and on each of Mick was a man in the samegarb holding a battle-axe. On the table was the sacred volume open, andat a distance, ranged in order on each side of the room, was a row ofpersons in white robes and white masks, and holding torches.

  "Michael Radley," said the President. "Do you voluntarily swear inthe presence of Almighty God and before these witnesses, that you willexecute with zeal and alacrity, as far as in you lies, every task andinjunction that the majority of your brethren testified by the mandateof this grand committee, shall impose upon you, in futherance ofour common welfare, of which they are the sole judges; such as thechastisement of Nobs, the assassination of oppressive and tyrannicalmasters, or the demolition of all mills, works and shops that shall bedeemed by us incorrigible. Do you swear this in the presence of AlmightyGod and before these witnesses?"

  "I do swear it," replied a tremulous voice.

  "Then rise and kiss that book."

  Mick slowly rose from his kneeling position, advanced with a tremblingstep, and bending, embraced with reverence the open volume.

  Immediately every one unmasked; Devilsdust came forward, and taking Mickby the hand led him to the President, who received him pronouncing somemystic rhymes. He was covered with a robe and presented with a torch,and then ranged in order with his companions. Thus terminated theinitiation of Dandy Mick into a TRADES UNION.

  Book 4 Chapter 5