“I have indicated what I shall do,” Brereton replied, with a gloomy look. “And I am prepared to be responsible for the safety of the city. If you wish me to act beyond my judgment, the civil power must give me an express and written order.”
Still the Mayor and those about him looked uneasy, though they did not dare to do what Brereton suggested. The howls of the rabble still rang in their ears, and before their eyes they had the black, gaping casements, through which an ominous murmur entered. They had waited long before calling in the Military, they had hesitated long; for Peterloo had erased Waterloo from the memory of an ungrateful generation, and men, secure abroad and straining after Reform at home, held a red-coat in small favour, if not in suspicion. But having called the red-coats in, they looked for something more than this, for some vindication of the law and the civil power, some stroke which would cast terror into the hearts of misdoers. The Town-clerk, in particular, had his doubts, and when no one else spoke he put them into words.
“May I ask,” he said formally, “if you have any orders, Colonel Brereton, from the Secretary of State or the Horse Guards, which prevent you from obeying the directions of the magistrates?”
Brereton looked at him sternly.
“No,” he said, “I am prepared to obey your orders, stated in the manner I have laid down. Then the responsibility will not lie with me.”
But the Mayor stepped back. “I couldn’t take it on myself, sir. I—God knows what the consequences might be!” He looked round piteously. “We don’t want another Manchester massacre.”
“I fancy,” Brereton answered grimly, “that if we have another Manchester business, it will go ill with those who sign the order! Times are changed since ’19, gentlemen—and governments! And I think we understand that. You leave it to me, then, gentlemen?”
No one spoke.
“Very good,” he continued. “If your constables will do their duty with discretion—and you could not have a better man to command them than Mr. Vaughan, but he ought to be going about it now—I will answer for the peace of the city.”
“But—but we shall see you again, Colonel Brereton,” the Mayor cried in some agitation.