His tall form seemed colossal in the uncertain and flickering
light, his rich and powerful voice reached almost to the
utmost limit of his vast audience, now still with expectation
and silent with excitement. Their fixed and eager glance, the
mouth compressed with fierce resolution or distended by novel
sympathy, as they listened to the exposition of their wrongs,
and the vindication of the sacred rights of labour--the shouts
and waving of the torches as some bright or bold phrase
touched them to the quick--the cause, the hour, the scene--all
combined to render the assemblage in a high degree exciting.
"I wonder if Warner will speak to-night," said Dandy Mick to
Devilsdust.
"He can't pitch it in like Gerard," replied his companion.
"But he is a trump in the tender," said the Dandy. "The
Handlooms looks to him as their man, and that's a powerful
section."
"If you come to the depth of a question, there's nothing like
Stephen Morley," said Devilsdust. "'Twould take six clergymen
any day to settle him. He knows the principles of society by
heart. But Gerard gets hold of the passions."
"And that's the way to do the trick," said Dandy Mick. "I
wish he would say march, and no mistake.
Pages:
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380