‘Such cruel, horrible men,’ they echoed.
‘So that we ... we stole into the camp when they were asleep and we frightened them; and they all ran away, leaving their arms behind them.’
Lord Chester looked at Captain Dunquerque.
‘Woman’s wit,’ he said. ‘Would you and I have thought of such a trick? Go, girls, tell the Bishop.’
But Algy looked sad.
‘And after all this drilling,’ he said, with a sigh, ‘and all our shouting, there is to be no fighting!’
CHAPTER XIV
THE ARMY OF AVENGERS
THE awful nature of the crisis, and the strangeness of the sight, kept the streets in the neighbourhood of the Camp in Hyde Park full of women, young and old. They roamed about among the tents, looking at the sullen faces of the men, examining their arms, and gazing upon them curiously, as if they were wild beasts. Not one among them expressed the least friendliness or kind feeling. The men were regarded by those who paid them, as well as by the rebels, with undisguised loathing.
About midnight the crowd lessened; at two o’clock, though there were still a few stragglers, most of the curious and anxious politicians had gone home to bed; at three, some of them still remained; at four—the darkest and deadest time of an autumn night—all were gone home, every special constable even, and the Camp was left in silence, the men in their tents, and asleep.
There still remained, however, a little crowd of some two or three dozen girls; they were collected together about the Marble Arch. They had formed, during the evening, part of the crowd; but now that this was dispersed, they seemed to gather together, and to talk in whispers. Presently, as if some resolution was arrived at, they all poured into the Park, and entered the sleeping Camp.