Page:The History of Ballarat.djvu/173

 had been previously absent on the ranges with some riflemen, ostensibly for the purpose of opposing the troops expected from Melbourne. There were diggers working at their claims also within the Stockade. One of the captains under Lalor thus describes the affair : —

I was on guard and saw the military at the same time that the alarm waii given by a digger working on a brace hard by. They were then at the point where the gully, nmning down from the Stockade, joins the head of Specimen Gully. I called out to Vem, and Vem called Lalor. We got under arms immediately, some 200 about. The first shot was fired from our party, and the military answered by a volley at 100 paces distance. Then there was a volley from the Stockade. The military sent out scouts on foot, and the troopers surrounded the Stockade, the party on foot being covered by the fire from the force posted on the high ground in the rear of the Free Trade hotel. Captain Wise led the scouts on foot, who broke into the Stockade where Lalor was, on the side fronting to Specimen Gully. They got in, and the firing, and piking, and bayonetting went on, and the shop on one side of the Stockade. The troopers fired the tents, and the rest of the military now came up. The sun had now risen, and about twenty minutes had passed since the first shot was fired. Then two soldiers appeared on the other side with bayonets fixed. Warden Amos* horse, which we had taken with the warden before, was between me and them, and I fired my revolver. One fell, and the other drew back. I then fired a second shot at the soldiers, my men in the tent cheering at the time. I then said, ** I'm off," and wheeled round to go out of the Stockade, but met some troopers and retreated, and ran into a butcher's shop close by. The military had now taken the Stockade, and they took away the prisoners they had. I was in the chimney, and so escaped, as they did not search. Most of our men were Irishmen. The soldiers now went off with their prisoners, and the Stockade, slabs, tents, and all were on fire.
 * rebels" got into disorder and rushed into some tents and a blacksmith's

The correspondent of the Melbovme Herald saw the retreat of the military with their dead, wounded, and prisoners. He says further : —

I was attracted by the smoke of the tents burnt by the soldiers, and there a most appalling sight presented itself. Many more are said to have been killed and wounded, but I myself saw eleven dead bodies of diggers lying within a very small space of groimd, and the earth was besprinkled with blood, and covered with the smoking mass of tents recently occupied. Could the Government but have seen the awful sight presented at Ballarat on this Sabbath morning — the women in tears, mourning over their dead relations, and the blood-bespattered countenances of many men in the