The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1924-02-21
CHAPTER XXI
4 Woman Scornad

/
al OLCNEL HOLES retraced his
| steps to the city Oh foot. A
- hackney-coach, such as that in
| which he had driven almost In tri-
umph to the Cockpit, was no longer
for him; nor yet could he submit to
the expense of going by water now
that the unexpected was all that
stood between himself and destitu
ton.
And yet the unexpected was not
quite all. An alternative existed,
though a very desperate one. There
was the rebellion in which Tucker
had sought fruitlessly hitherto to en-
gage him. The thought OF it began
20 stir in his detected mind, as leaden-
footed he dragged himself toward
Temple Bar through the almost
/ sitting heat which was making itself
ielt in London at the end Of that
month Of May. Temptation urged
him now, noarished not ONLY by the
/ circumstance that in rebellion Law
his last hope of escaping starvation.
but also by hot resentment against
an Indictment and unjust government
that drove able soldiers such as him
self into the kennels, whilst befriend.
ing the worthless minions who pan
dered to the prof1igacy Of a worthless
prince. Vice, he told himself. was
the only passport to service in this
England of the restored Stuarts
Tucker and Rathbone were right. ~
least what they did was justified and
hallowed by the country's need of
salvation from the moral leprosy
that was fastening itself upon it. a
cIsease more devastating and deadly
than This plague upon which the re.
! pupheans counted to arouse the ma
ton to n sense of it's position.
He counted the cost of failure; but
he counted it derisively. His life
would be claimed. That was the
stake he set upon the board. But
considering that it was the only stake
remaining him. why hesitate? What
after all, was this life of his worth
that he should be tender of setting it
upon a last throw with Fortune?
Fortune favors holiness. Perhans
in the past he had not been bold
enough.
Deep in his musings he had reached
st. Clement Danes, when he was
abruptly aroused by a voice. harsh
and warningly commanding.
Keep your distance, SIR
Checking, he looked round to the
right, whence the order came.
He beheld a man with a nike who
stood before a padlocked door that
was smeared with a red cross a foot
in length, above which also In red
was heavily daubed the legend: LORD
Have Mercy Upon Us.
Iaken thus by surprise. the Colonel
shuddered as at the contact of some
thing unclean and horrible. Hastily
he stepped out into the middle of the
unpaved street, and, pausing there q
moment, glanced up at the closed shut
ters Of the infected house. It was the
first that he had seen; for although he
mad come this way a week ago. wher
the plague was already active in the
neighborhood. yet it was then con
fined TO Butchers Row on the nort}
side of the church and to the NEAR
streets that issued thence To find il
thus upon the main road between
the city and Whitehall was to be rem
dered unpleasantly conscious OF it:
spread. And, as he now pursued his
way with tnstinctively uuIckenef
steps. he found his thoughts thrust
more closely than ever upon the use,
which the revolutionaries could maxi
Of this dread pestilence. Much brood
ing IN his disturbed state of mind dis
tcrted his mental vision. so that ht
came presently to adopt the view tina
This plague was a visitation from
Heaven upon city abandoned to I'm
goodness. Heaven. it followed. mus
be on the side of those who lahore,
! to effect a purifying change.
The end of it was that as he toila
up Ludgate Hill toward Paul's, hi
resolve was taken. That evening h
would seek Tucker and throw in hi
, lot with the republicans.
Coming into Pauls Yard. he foun,
a considerable crowd assembled be
fore the western door of the cathe
4: dral. 1t was composed of people o
, all degrees; merchants, shopkeepers
prentices, horseboys, scanvengers
, rogues from the alleys that lay be
hind the OLD Change, idlers an,
= sharpers from Paul's Walk, with ;
sprinkling Of women, of town-gaIlants
and Of soldiers. And there, upon tn,
steps Of the portico, stood the mag
net that had drawn them in the shape
Of that black crow of a Jack Presbv
ter preaching the city's doom. AND
his text--recurring like the refrain OF
a song-was ever. the same:
''Ye- have defiled your sanctuaries
by the multitude of your iniquities,
by the iniqtity of your traffic"
And yet. from between the Corin-
THAN pillars which served him for his
background, had been swept away the
milliners' shops that had stood there
during the Commonwealth.
Whether some thought of this in
the minds of his audience rendered
his words humorously inapt, or
whether it was merely that a spirit
Of irresponsibility ribaldry was infused
into the crowd by a crowd of young