The Reckoning (94 page)

Hawker took over the tale. 'The crowd was still fairly good-
tempered, though they were jeering and laughing. Left alone,
I dare say nothing much would have happened. With Hunt gone, the crowd would have started to drift away from the
outside, and then the Yeomen could have dismounted and led
their horses out. One or two might have been roughed up a
little, but serve 'em right.

‘
But no, Hulton needs must get into a panic. He called to Colonel L'Estrange, who was commanding the Hussars, that
the Yeomanry were being attacked and must be rescued, and
gave him a direct order to go in and disperse the crowd, which L'Estrange couldn't disobey.'

‘
Ah,' Rosamund said, a soft sound of acknowledgement of
disaster.

‘
They were ordered only to use the flat of the sword, but
pushing their horses into that sort of crowd, there were bound
to be accidents. Of course some people were trying to get
away, and shoving one way, and others were trying to attack
the Hussars and shoving the other way; and then people
started screaming –’

The doctor arrived at that moment, and the narrative was
broken off, to the relief of all. Rosamund's fingers were
growing numb, but Dr Halsey praised her foresight in holding
the wound together, and told Farraline he would have her to
thank if his scar were more dashing than disfiguring. He
noted Farraline's pallor.

‘
I think you had better have a nip of brandy before I begin,
young man. Probably lost a lot of blood. Blow on the head? I
see, yes. We'll have a look then. Ah yes, a nasty contusion, but
no fracture. Your diagnosis too, ma'am? And where did you read medicine, may one enquire? Waterloo! Plenty of cases
there to study, I should think. So, no concussion in the case,
would you agree? And brandy indicated? Just so. Then
perhaps it would amuse you to assist me, ma'am, in my oper
ation?’

Talking cheerfully he drove everyone but Rosamund away
from the sofa and got out his suturing needles. Jasper was a
little outraged at his asking Rosamund to do anything so
unladylike as assist him, but seeing that neither Sophie nor
Hawker felt it necessary to intervene, and knowing from
Sophie a little of Rosamund's history, he held his tongue.

‘
Shocking business this, at St Peter's Fields,' the doctor
said in a moment. He always made it a rule to talk while he
stitched, to keep the patient's mind occupied, for it was a
painful and protracted business. 'Not at all the thing to send
the army in against an unarmed crowd. Still, if it saved a
general riot, I suppose it was just as well. Can't have mobs
roaming the streets, can we? This isn't Paris. Should never
have allowed the meeting in the first place — crowd of that
size, and none of 'em local people, you know. Come now, this is looking better! Another two and we shall be done. Bear up, young man. Sword cut, was it? I suppose you got caught up in
it, eh? Just so. Curiosity killed the cat, so they say. There'll be
many a yard of catgut used today by what I've seen. The
place looks like a battlefield — quite frightful — littered with
hats and shoes and broken staffs, and bodies everywhere —'

‘
Bodies?' said Sophie and Rosamund, almost simultane
ously.

‘
Fifty dead, they're saying, and hundreds wounded — some
with sabre cuts, others crushed and trampled. I must go back
as soon as I've finished here. No fees to be had from those
poor devils, of course, but one must do what one can.’

A silence followed his words, and then Jasper crossed the room swiftly to put his arm round Sophie and help her into a
chair.

‘
There, that's done,' the doctor said, snipping the last
stitch. 'You'll feel like the very devil in an hour's time, but I'll
send my boy round with a draught for you, and come in and
see you tomorrow. And now I must, as I said, go straight back
to the Fields, if you'll forgive me, Mrs Hobsbawn.'

‘Of course — thank you, Dr Halsey,' Sophie said faintly.

‘
I'll come with you,' Hawker said. 'I may be of some use.
I'll come back later if I may,' he added with a glance between
Sophie and Rosamund.

It was on Jasper's lips to say he would go too, but Sophie anticipated his intent, and looked at him so pathetically that
he closed his mouth again, the words unsaid.

*

Sophie and Jasper insisted that Farraline remain at Hobs
bawn House for a few days, and Farraline was only too glad
to accept the invitation. The following day after breakfast
Rosamund went up to see him in his chamber, and found him reading the newspaper which Jasper had left for him when he
went out that morning.

‘
Eleven dead, and about four hundred wounded,' he told
her. 'Of course, no-one can be sure of the exact number of
wounded, since many of them will have gone home and
treated themselves. The Massacre of Peterloo, they call it here.'

‘Peterloo?'

‘
St Peter's Fields — Waterloo. An ignoble as opposed to a
noble battle.'

‘Still, hardly a massacre.'

‘
Eleven people dead, my love,' Farraline said gravely.

‘
Yes, but the deaths were purely accidental. Mr Hawker spoke to Joliffe of the 15th yesterday, and he said it was a
tribute to the forbearance of his men that there weren't more
injuries. However, the Whig press will have a wonderful time
with it, I suppose. Sidmouth must act quickly to prevent them undermining confidence in the magistracy.'

‘
An excellent principle of Government, Lady Chelmsford —
it doesn't matter too much whether what you do is right or
wrong, as long as the people think it's right.'

‘Never mind that,' she said sternly. 'You haven't told me
yet how you managed to get this perfectly hideous wound.
Your face is twice its usual size today. It looks like something
more usually found in a butcher's shop.'

‘
Thank you. You are most reassuring. Here I am, lying at
death's door, my soul quaking at the thought of my disfigure
ment –’

She kissed the end of his nose. 'You will never be less than
beautiful to me,' she said sweetly. 'But to it, Farraline! How
did you get embroiled?'

‘
Like an idiot, trying to rescue a woman.'

‘
I knew there'd have to be a female in the case. Your appe
tites will be the ruin of you.'

‘
Not my appetites, but my idiot chivalry. I was quite safe in
a doorway until I saw this particular female go down under one of the horses. She was in the way as it swung its rump,
was knocked off her feet, and was in danger of being tram
pled. I shoved my way in to her, and in order to drag her up,
put my hand out to grab hold of the horse's shabraque to
steady myself. I got the Hussar's leg instead, and I suppose he
thought I was trying to pull him down. He swiped at me, I
ducked, and – that was that.'

‘
He tried to kill you?'

‘
Oh Lord, no, he meant to hit me with the flat, but it was a
backhanded blow, you see. Simply bad luck. I don't know
what hit me on the head, but down I went, and the rest is a
blur. At some point I found I was being dragged out from the
crush, and I suppose I have Fitz and old Hobsbawn to thank
for my life.'

‘
Particularly Jasper Hobsbawn.
He
had no brief to save
you, and has ended up with some very painful bruises. Poor
Sophie was convinced she'd never see him again when we
heard the noise of the riot.'

‘
Well, here we are, safe and sound, anyway, and it's all
over now,' he said soothingly. 'Very much a storm in a
teacup. I don't suppose anyone will think twice about it this
time next week.’

Later in the day Mr Hawker came to visit his friend. When
he left him he took himself to the morning-room to pay his
respects to the ladies, and found Rosamund there alone,
Sophie having been called away to attend to some minor
domestic crisis.

‘
And what was your part in all this?' she asked him. 'I can't
tell you how surprised I was when I saw you come down the
street with the other two.'

‘
I don't know why you should have been surprised. You
know about my special assignment with the Home Office.'

‘
Yes, of course. I didn't mean that precisely. I suppose
Sidmouth sent you to keep an eye on Hunt?'

‘
Yes, amongst others. He's been alarmed at the upsurgence
of activity in the Hampden Clubs this year; but what I've seen
here is something quite new and much more worrying, some
thing he hasn't at all bargained for.'

‘
What, a mob turning to violence? What's new about that?'

‘
No, you mistake me. I told you the violence was the merest
and most stupid mistake. No, what was different was what
happened beforehand – though I know I shall never be able to
convince Sidmouth or any of the others of it. But Farraline
understands.’

Rosamund frowned, trying to track down an elusive
memory. 'Yes, I have it,' she said abruptly. 'I was trying to
recall – Sophie said, when we watched the people going past to the meeting, that they had nothing in common. They were
from all manner of different interests – farm-labourers side
by side with mill-hands.'

‘
Yes, you are there!' He looked at her admiringly. 'What a
pity, Lady Chelmsford, that you weren't born a boy! Yes, this mob was drawn together right across the traditional divisions
of interest, and they were clamouring
peacefully, and within
the law
for something they thought would be of benefit to
them all. You simply don't expect co-operative effort like that
from the lower orders. These were no starving farm-labourers
burning ricks, no out-of-work weavers smashing looms.
Always before, when the lower orders have protested, it has
been in the mindless way of animals, undirected and futile
violence. The sophistication of this latest meeting is what is so terrifying.'

‘
But they had sophisticated leaders,' Rosamund reminded
him. 'They didn't think of it for themselves.'

‘
It doesn't matter. All risings have leaders more sophisticated than the mob; but they have never before managed to make the mob behave in a sophisticated way.' He shook his
head. 'I think what we have seen here is an indication. A
phase of our history is coming to an end.’

Rosamund looked at him doubtfully. 'Surely you exag
gerate?’

He met her eyes. 'I think that the reform of Parliament
they are clamouring for is bound to come, now that the Hunts
and Cartwrights of this world have learned how to make a tool of the mobility. And that means the end of a thousand years of one system of government, and the beginning of –what? Something we cannot imagine, because it has never
existed before. I don't know how that will change our lives,
but I know that it
will
change them.’