Sadly I made my way towards the city through the jostling crowds of sightseers. Another batch of captives from the North was to pass through the town that day on their way to prison, and a fleering rabble surged to and fro about the streets of London in gala dress, boisterous, jovial, pitiless. From high to low by common consent the town made holiday. Above the common ruck, in windows hired for the occasion, the fashionable world, exuding patronage and perfume, sat waiting for the dreary procession to pass. In the windows opposite where I found standing room a party from the West End made much talk and laughter. In the group I recognized Antoinette Westerleigh, Sir James Craven, and Topham Beauclerc.
“Slitterkins! I couldn’t get a seat at Westminster Hall this morning for love or money,” pouted Mistress Westerleigh. “’Tis pity you men can’t find room for a poor girl to see the show.”
“Egad, there might as well have been no rebellion at all,” said Beauclerc dryly. “Still, you can go to see their heads chopped off. ’Twill be some compensation.”
“I suppose you’ll go, Selwyn,” said Craven to that gentleman, who with Volney had just joined the group.
“I suppose so, and to make amends I’ll go to see them sewn on again,” returned Selwyn.
“I hear you want the High Steward’s wand for a memento,” said Beauclerc.
“Not I,” returned Selwyn. “I did, but egad! he behaved so like an attorney the first day and so like a pettifogger the second that I wouldn’t take the wand to light my fire with.”
“Here they come, sink me!” cried Craven, and craned forward to get a first glimpse of the wretched prisoners.
First came four wagon-loads of the wounded, huddled together thick as shrimps, their pallid faces and forlorn appearance a mute cry for sympathy. The mob roared like wild beasts, poured out maledictions on their unkempt heads, hurled stones and sticks at them amid furious din and clamour. At times it seemed as if the prisoners would be torn from the hands of their guard by the excited mob. Scarce any name was found too vile with which to execrate these unfortunate gentlemen who had been guilty of no crime but excessive loyalty.
Some of the captives were destined for the New Prison in Southwark, others for Newgate, and a few for the Marshalsea. Those of the prisoners who were able to walk were handcuffed together in couples, with the exception of a few of the officers who rode on horseback bound hand and foot. Among the horsemen I easily recognized Malcolm Macleod, who sat erect, dour, scornful, his strong face set like a vise, looking neither to the right nor the left. Another batch of foot prisoners followed. Several of the poor fellows were known to me, including Leath, Chadwick, and the lawyer Morgan. My roving eye fell on Creagh and Captain Roy shackled together.