"Hush, boy! he is hemmed in-beset!— Thy father fights alone; A moment-but a moment yet, And then thou may'st have none!"One moment stood those gazers fixt As statues in a dream, One breathless moment-and the next Broke forth a widow's scream! "Dead! dead! I saw the gushing goreI saw him reel and fall! And now they trample o'er and o'er The mightiest of them all! Dead! dead! and what are children now, Let the red tide of slaughter flow- THE KELP-GATHERER. The stranger who wanders along the terrific masses of crag that overhang the green and foaming waters of the Atlantic on the western coasts of Ireland feels a melancholy interest excited in his mind as he turns aside from the more impressive grandeurs of the scene, and gazes on the small stone heaps that are scattered over the moss on which he treads. They are the graves of the nameless few whose bodies have been from time to time ejected from the bosom of the ocean, and cast upon those lonely crags to startle the early fisherman with their ghastly and disfigured bulk. Here they meet, at the hands of the pitying mountaineers, the last offices of Christian charity-a grave in the nearest soft earth, with no other ceremonial than the humble peasant's prayer. Here they lie, uncoffined, unlamented, unclaimed by mourning friends, starting like sudden spectres of death from the depths of the ocean, to excite a wild fear, a passing thought of pity, a vain inquiry in the hamlet, and then sink into the earth in mystery and in silence, to be no more remembered on its surface. The obscurity which envelops the history of those unhappy strangers affords a subject to the speculative traveller, on which he may give free play to the wings of his imagination. Few, indeed, can pass these deserted sepulchres without endeavouring for a moment to penetrate in fancy the darkness which enshrouds the fate of their mouldering tenants; without beholding the progress of the ruin that struck from beneath the voyager's feet the firm and lofty fabric to which he had confidently trusted his existence; without hearing the shrieks of the despairing crew, and the stern and horrid When the surgeon came, he found poor Horsfall's pulse weak, faint, and tremulous, and he was pale and sick. One ball had passed through his left side to his right side, and nearly cut the femoral artery. The other ball | had pierced his left thigh. He died in about thirty-eight hours. A labourer in the adjacent fields, who saw the murder perpetrated, was seized with terror, and fled. Another man, ignorant of the murder, saw four men run and clamber over a wall into Dungeon Wood. In getting over the bars, part of a pistol was seen under one of the men's coats, and the ploughman said to himself: their precautions. The head-quarters of the cavalry were at the house now belonging to Mr. Robert Taylor. It was then the principal inn in the village, and known as the Old Red Lion, kept by a landlord named John Race. The large room still extending over the entire building-now applied to a far different purpose was converted into barracks for the cavalry, their horses being kept in the adjoining stables. At Ottiwells, where a portion of the infantry was continually on guard during the night, prompt measures against a probable attack were taken. Watch and ward was maintained by the soldiery and the local constabulary, a strict surveillance was kept over "There go Luds; we shall have mischief to- all suspected individuals, and no lights were night!" The man (probably Mellor), seeing the pistol was observed, drew his top-coat down over it. Smith and Walker hid their pistols in two ant-hills in the wood, and also Mellor's powderhorn. Mellor and Thorpe then ordered their companions to go Honley way, and gave them two shillings to buy beer. They went on two miles further to Honley, and there drank seven or eight pints of ale. There was a drunken collier there, and the collier, pleased with Smith's excellent whistling, got up and tried to dance. Soon after, some pale, frightened men came in from Huddersfield market, and brought word that Mr. Horsfall had been shot, and was lying half-dead at the Warren House. The next day Walker was sent for by Mellor to come into his shop at Longroyd Mill. Mellor, Thorpe, and Smith then produced a Bible, and ordered him to kiss it, and swear to keep the secret "in all its circumstances.' Six other workmen had already been sworn. Mellor had burned his finger in firing, and it was then bound up, while Thorpe's face had been scratched in running through the plantation. Mellor and Thorpe's pistols had been left by the former at his cousin's at Dungeon Wood, where the apprentices hid them under some flocks, and after that in the laite. At this house Mellor also left his own bottle-green top-coat and Thorpe's, and took his cousin's drab-coat away as a disguise. permitted in any dwellings after nine o'clock in the evening. It was naturally anticipated that Woodbottom Mill and its proprietors would be the next objects of vengeance, and preparations were made to frustrate it. For months past Enoch and James Taylor had slept in the mill in consequence of their lives being threatened and their own dwellings being unsafe, and they formed part of the mill garrison at night. Their future partner, Arthur Hirst, was the woollen engineer at the mill, and he vigorously laboured to convert the factory into a fortified place, becoming for the time a military engineer. The windows of the first story were barricaded. The doors and window-shutters were coated inside with sheetiron. All communication between the first and upper stories could be cut off, and the defenders inside were enabled to fire upon an attacking force from the upper stories while sheltered themselves. A trap-door on a floor over the water-wheel had been so ingeniously planned by Arthur Hirst, that if the rioters had gained an entrance they would, on touching the flooring, drop through into the wheelrace below." Such, however, was the fear of the vengeance of the Luddites, that Mellor and his companions remained undiscovered for nearly a year. Though two thousand pounds (a large sum for poor workmen) were offered for their apprehension, they remained going in and out at Longroyd Mill just as usual, though several dozen men must have known of their The Luddites were now triumphant, while guilt. At last, Benjamin Walker, tempted quiet and honest people were frantic with fear. by the reward, betrayed them, and was adWe draw upon our local authority for a picture mitted evidence for the crown. A special of the aspect of things at this crisis. There commission was held at York before Baron were, however, brave men still resolute and Thomas and Judge Le Blanc for the trial of determined. "At Marsden, on the receipt of the Luddites, sixty-four in number, who were the intelligence, the authorities, undismayed, concerned in the disturbances in the West prepared for all emergencies and redoubled | Riding. The assizes commenced on Saturday, January 2d, 1813, and terminated on the 12th of the same month. Amongst the prisoners were three of the murderers of Mr. Horsfall, namely, George Mellor, William Thorpe, and Thomas Smith. The evidence against them was conclusive. The prisoners were defended by Henry, afterwards Lord Brougham. At that day it was a peculiarity of the law in trials for such crimes as the prisoners were charged with, that while their counsel could cross-examine the witnesses for the crown, and examine the witnesses for the defence, they could not address the jury on behalf of the accused. This palpable and cruel injustice no longer exists. Mr. Justice Le Blanc, the presiding judge, summed up the evidence clearly and impartially. At the close of the summingup the jury retired, and returned in twentyfive minutes, bringing in a verdict of "Guilty" against all the prisoners, who, upon being asked if they had anything to urge why sentence of death should not be passed upon them, severally declared that they were "Not Guilty," Thorpe adding, "Evidence has been given false against me, that I declare." Before and after the conviction an impression possessed many minds that Smith was not as culpable as the rest, and that he was as much sinned against as sinning. This feeling was strengthened by the fact that the jury singled him out from the rest, and, the day before the execution, recommended him to mercy; but the recommendation was disregarded. The trial concluded on Wednesday, the 12th of January. In those days death followed quickly upon conviction, and on the Friday following the execution of the three men took place at York. In the short interval between conviction and execution the prisoners were very penitent, yet persistently refused to make any acknowledgment of their guilt. Mellor declared "that he would rather be in the situation he was then placed in, dreadful as it was, than have to answer for the crime of their accuser (Walker);" adding, that "he would not change places with him for his liberty and two thousand pounds." To prevent the possibility of rescue, the place of execution was guarded by a strong force of cavalry and infantry, and at nine o'clock in the morning, in the presence of a vast assemblage of people, the murderers met their doom. Though deeply affected, they made no confession of their guilt. On the Saturday but one following, fourteeen more persons were executed at York for crimes of a similar character; a wholesale execution which has since had no parallel in England. Walker, the informer, was ever after shunned and detested. His ill-earned money did not prosper; he became poor, and in his old age had to apply for parish relief at Huddersfield. "The members of the firm of Messrs. Abraham and John Horsfall took the death of their son and nephew greatly to heart; and the father, Mr. Abraham Horsfall, from thenceforth appeared to imbibe a dislike to Marsden. The use of the obnoxious machinery was discontinued at Ottiwells, and cropping by hand resumed; and in a few years afterwards their mill property in Marsden was disposed of, Bank bottom Mills passing into the possession of Messrs. Norris, Sykes, and Priestley; and Ottiwells into that of Messrs. Abraham and William Kinder. It is related that, after his son's death, Mr. Abraham Horsfall never again entered the mill at Ottiwells, and when riding past on his way to Bankbottom, he invariably averted his face from the mill, as if its very sight was hateful and painful to him." On the 9th of January, Haigh, Dean, Ogden, the three Brooks, Walker, and Hirst were tried for the attack on Cartwright's mill. Haigh, Dean, Ogden, Thomas Brook, and Walker were found guilty and hanged. The rest were acquitted. After this wholesome severity, the Luddites never made much further head in Yorkshire. The spirit of resistance was roused, leaders were wanting to the rioters, and the better class of workmen began to shrink from com. binations that, beginning in destroying machinery, so soon ripened into murder. WALTER THORNBURY. MINGUILLO. FROM THE SPANISH. "Since for kissing thee, Minguillo, My mother scolds me all the day, Let me have it quickly, darling! Give me back the kiss, I pray. "If we have done aught amiss, Let's undo it while we may, Quickly give me back the kiss, That she may have nought to say. "Do she keeps so great a pother, Chides so sharply, looks so grave; Do, my love, to please my mother, Give me back the kiss I gave." "Out upon you, false Minguillo! One you give, but two you take;" "Give me back the two, my darling! Give them, for my mother's sake." J. G. LOCKHART. |