JAMES THE SECOND.

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Irish whom Feversham had let loose were marching on Lon- cu ^ p -don and massacring every man, woman, and child on the road. 1688tAt one in the morning the drums of the militia beat to arms.Everywhere terrified women were weeping and wringing theirhands, while their fathers and husbands were equipping them-selves for fight. Before two the capital wore a face of sternpreparedness which might well have daunted a real enemy, ifsuch an enemy had been approaching. Candles were blazingat all the windows. The public places were as bright as atnoonday. All the great avenues were barricaded. Morethan twenty thousand pikes and muskets lined the streets.

The late daybreak of the winter solstice found the whole Citystill in arms. During many years the Londoners retained avivid recollection of what they called the Irish Night. Whenit was known that there had been no cause of alarm, attemptswere made to discover the origin of the rumcrar which hadproduced so much agitation. It appeared that some personswho had the look and dress of clowns just arrived from thecountry had first spread the report in the suburbs a littlebefore midnight: but whence these men came, and by whomthey were employed, remained a mystery. And soon newsarrived from many quarters which bewildered the public mindstill more. The panic had not been confined to London. Thecry that disbanded Irish soldiers were coming to murder theProtestants had, with malignant ingenuity, been raised atonce in many places widely distant from each other. Greatnumbers of letters, skilfully framed for the purpose offrightening ignorant people, had been sent by stage coaches,by waggons, and by the post, to various parts of England.

All these letters came to hand almost at the same time. In ahundred towns at once the populace was possessed with thebelief that armed barbarians were at hand, bent on perpe-trating crimes as foul as those which had disgraced the rebel-lion of Ulster. No Protestant would find mercy. Childrenwould be compelled by torture to murder their parents.

Babes would be stuck on pikes, or flung into the blazing ruinsof what had lately been happy dwellings. Great multitudesassembled with weapons: the people in some places began to