The Sun.
London, England, 1851-11-19 00:00:00

LITERATURE

CONVICTION, a Tale. By B. Clarke, Esq. 3
Vols. London : T. C. Newby.
The scene of this novel is laid in England at the
time of the civil war between Charles I. and the
Parliament. It opens in August, 1645, and concludes
with the battle of Marston Moor, between which two
periods the reader is presented with a series of
graphic pictures of the state of the country during
that inelanc'noly contest. The hero of the tale is
Trenton Daubigny, an orphan, who has been brought
up under the care of Colonel Dornford, an adherent
of the King, and who has joined the Royalists, with
his protector. Albert, the son of Colonel Dornford has,
however, joined the Parliamentarians; but before the
battle of Marston Moor, prevailed upon by an old
friend, Herbert Endsleigh, the eon of the vicar of
Chaveley, he assists Trenton Daubigny, who has been
taken prisoner and condemned as a spy, to escape
with Herbert, who is also a prisoner, and with
them goes over to the Royalists. There are
two heroines, Helen Endsleigh and Edith Dornford,
the former beloved by Daubigny and the latter by
Herbert Endsleigh. Edith has been confided by her
father, at the commencement of the civil war, to one
Vovasour, a Romish priest, who has induced her to
embrace the Roman Catholic faith. Helen has been
immured in an English convent, by means of an in.
trigging Italian Jesuit,who plays the part of a spy alter-
nately in the Royalist and Republican camps, as best
suits his purpose. She undergoes many hardships in-
flicted on her for the purpose of making her become
a member of the Roman Catholic Church ' but even-
tually escapes, and joins her friends and her lover.
Edith also is at last made to perceive the error she
committed in abjuring her first religion. In the
course of the tale Trenton Daubigny takes a journey
to London, and witnesses one of the tumults which
were then of such frequent occurrence in the city. It
is thus described :
" At length they emerged from the narrow street upon
the open space of Smithfield, where the greater light
enabled them to distinguish a number repidiy congro-
gating before the hospital of St. Bartholomew. The
boisterous expression of an ungovernable mob owe-
sieually broke out, and while the few minutes elapsed,
during which the travellers waited to allow a baud of
adherents to pass, who were making their way through
the.bars from the precincts of Clerkenwell, they had an
opportunity of scanning the visages of these rough par-
tizans of peace and loyalty.
" The long continuance of the war had so grievously
affected the trade of the country that that class, which is
generally the last to feel the misery and farthest re-
moved from the brunt of civil warfare, were now endur-
ing the plague in all its severity. Surge after surge had
rolled on upon each other, each overwhelming wave
being overtopped by its successor, till, breaking through
the land-mark, by which its tide had hitherto been con-
fined or restrained, the mighty flood of discord and dis-
tress had covered the heights, and was now absolutely
hanging over, and about to sweep down upon the
very vales of society. The spirit of proud independ-
ence, and almost scorn of the power of their rulers, by
which the Londoners had ever been distinguished, urged
on by the wild insinuations of those by whom the rest-
less disorder of a few hundred people were used to fur-
ther their own dark designs, for whose operations the
multitudinous population of a great city offered an ample
and desirable field, had led them to coalesce readily with
the Parliamentary faction in the commencement of their
struggle with the King. They took up the cause as one
in perfect coincidence with their feelings, and exactly
adapted to their prejudices. Every appeal that was
made to their understanding came from persons whom
they were reaay to acknowledge as champions of free-
dom, and was strongly bsekcd by their passions. As to
the justice on which these appeals were grounded, they
took no time for consideration. They conceived only
that their own present interests would be advanced and
the bounds of liberty enlarged, and did not look forward
enough to perceive how much suffering must be endured
to accomplish their ends, and how surely despotism
would result from license. But the dawn ot a new day
had broken around them. The expectaticre which had from
the first been so profusely held out by the Parliament,
that the power which they had extorted, by wily diplo-
macy, from the weakness of the King, would speedily
enable them to crush him, by whom it had been given,
had proved fallacious. Defeat had followed defeat; re-
striction had come upon restriction, until circumscribed
in their bounds, cut off from their supplies, thwarted of
their object, wasted in their means, they felt the success
which from month to month they had been taught to
think was within their grasp, had receded farther than
ever, and they began, with the same pertinacity as they
had called for war, to clamour for peace.
" Already a large crowd had assembled on the south-
west side, and the stream which was pouring past the end
of King-street, added greatly to swell its numbers.
Above their heads they held a number of torches, which
served to show the ghastly countenances and tattered
garments of the various multitude, and exhibited all the
squalidness of the miserable wretches, who hurried on
beneath and about them.
" A man whose excited, yet ascetic countenance,
evinced even more plainly than his long dark cloak, fas-
tened at the throat, his plain garments and straight
whit 9 collar, that he was of the number of those enthu-
siasts who, gifted with the power of fluent delivery,
without the facility of correct reasoning, to see whither
their flight tended, or the discretion to restrain them,
was mounted on a cask, surrounded by at least a dozen
flambeaux, wildly haranguing the people upon their suf-
ferings.
"He pointed with his arm to a party at the
moment approaching from Clerkenwell, and a
cheer of demoniac fierceness greeted their arrival,
which was responded to by a cry of equal energy, and
as the two parties closed, the air was again rent by
their unnatural and tumultuous assertions of fealty and
good will. Again silence prevailed, and the voice of the
orator was heard above the din of the multitude. A few
words from the apprentice who had accosted him sufficed
to explain to Trenton the cause of the assemblage, and
as the expressions occasionally fell upon his ear, he
could not but acknowledge that the force with which
they were uttered, as well as the purport of them, was
well calculated to rouse all the passions of a mob pre-
viously disposed to violence. At length his object was
declared to be the demolition of the (louses ot Parlia-
ment, and as ho went on to enforce his project by cogent
arguments, all appealing to their hatred of those above
them, and pointing out the probability of spoil, the people
began to flourish tbo various arms with which they were
supplied with increased frenzy.

" The heavy and measured tread, as of a numerous
anti disciplined body, came faintly along; the ground
behind them, and then rapidly increased, till on turning
their heads the body of the advancing columns of hai-
berdiers was seen turning up the steep rise of Snow-hill.
Trenton and his parry immediately retreated to the
obscurity of the shaded portion of the field behind the
coping of a large hostel on the west.
" There could not, according to Trenton's calculation, be
less than four or five hundred halberdiers, who steadily
wound up, in a column of six abreast, to the scene of
action. They were preceded by an (Boer, whose
sheathed sword and steady quietness showed him to be
well used to times of conflict. After an interval of two
feet followed two or three squadrons of cavalry, armed
to the teeth, and prepared for any encounter.
" At the moment of their approach the wild multi-
tu:le was at its very height of excitement, and the shouts,
cries, and groans vveio truly terrific. Onward, how-
ever, the military went, and their appearance was only
perceived by the endeavour of their leader to force his
horse into the thickness of the dense mass. For a mo-
ment ha was resisted, but putting spurs to his steed, the
anima! absolutely leaped amongst the multitude, bearing
down by his weight alone all beneath him, and severely
injuring several. An opening once made, the soldiery
peen trated as a wedge into the trunk of some great tree;
they appeared to make little opening, and yet they ad-
vanced, the commander urging his horse forward as
before.
"At length, when about a fourth of the column had
entered the crowd, the whole multitude appeared to have
become sensible of their presence, and a terrible heaving
to and fro among the tremendous crowd immediately
ensued. Shoulder to shoulder, and foot to toot, not an
inch did they seem to yield, and for a while the passive
resistance of mere weight was all they opposed to the
progress of the soldiery."
" But this could not long continue; their absorption
in the words of their orator gave place at Last to bad*.
nation at the cries of those who had been hurt by the
officer's charger, and the hands of several powerful men
were stretched to unseat him. He was, however, appa-
rently only intent upon his object, and as they vainly
endeavoured to lay hold of the polished surface of his
care.ss, a prick with his heel caused his horse to make
another bound which placed him beyond the grasp of his
assailants, whilst the °tidy of his followers effectually
closed up the track against them.
" Again, and with a bound, his steed placed his fore-
feet upon their breasts, but a hundred hands were
atretched out to throw him, and his utter destruction
must have immediately followed, had not, at that mo-
ment, a deafening peal of firearms rattled from the car-
bines of the cavalry. A momentary panic was visible
among the multitude, and the instant was seized by the
leader to take advantage of the little space they had left.
" Forward!'
" The word was obeyed, and the crowd yielded like
waves of the sea before the advancing weapons of the
soldiery, For a moment there was a silence, and the
n'ightY mass heaved to and fco like a huge monster
agitated by its death-throo. Then a wild cry of despair,
rage, and terror seemed to break from every aide, and, as
if space had been suddenly found, every individual of
that immense multitude to have a different
object and a different way to appeared.
" Again that terrible report peeled through the air,
and at least twenty more bodies lay prostrate on the
t
earth. Onward the cavalry dashed to what had been the
centre of the mass.
The yielding multitudel gave way
before them, while such as were not
• •
grodud.". own, and lay writhing ou the
quick enough to
escape were ridden d

Mr. Clarke has been peculiarly successful in his de-
scriptions, not only of such scenes as the above, but
also of old country houses, which were so often the
theatres of sanguinary conflicts between the Royalists
and Parliamentarians. Although, as will be seen by
the extract, he thinks the Parlia►ncntarians were in the
wrong, he gives them credit for conscientiousness,
and for believing in the principles that they advocated.
In the same manner, when speaking of the Roman
Catholics, although the principal portion of the tale
consists of descriptions of the intrigues of the Romish
1 priesthood, there is one person, Vavasour, or Father
Hildebrand, whose character is drawn as that of a
good and high-principled, though mistaken man. All
the characters are well drawn. Besides these we