Chapter XLVIX.
Taedet Animam Meam Vitae Meae.
The news of our private, though never acknowledged, disbandment must soon have reached the Camp.
THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL UNRAVEL THE MYSTERY.
What a nonsense of mine to endeavour to swell up the Eureka stockade to the level of a Sebastopol!!
Good reader, I have to relate the story of a shocking murder, a disgrace to the Christian name.
I am a Catholic, and believe in the life everlasting. On the day of judgment it will go milder with the Emperor Nicholas, than with the man whoever he may be, that prompted and counted on the Eureka massacre on the Sunday morning, December 3rd, 1854.
At four o'clock, the diggers crowded again towards the stockade. The divisions of Ross and Nealson had returned from their excursions and were under arms. The scene became soon animated, and the usual drilling was pushed on with more ardour than ever.
John Basson Humffray, of whom nothing was seen or heard since the previous Wednesday, now introduced, through a letter in his own handwriting; addressed 'To the Commander-in-Chief of the armed diggers, Eureka,' a Doctor Kenworthy, as surgeon, because he (Humffray) feared that a collision between the diggers and the military would soon take place.
Peters, the spy, was at the same time within the stockade.