Page:The Siege of London - Posteritas - 1885.djvu/42

 bard the town, and actually succeeded in doing, considerable mischief. But one of them was sunk by the eighty-ton casemated gun on the Admiralty Pier, and the other effected her escape. Public excitement was next raised to a pitch of fury by the announcement of fighting in Ireland between the people and the troops. The populace had risen in the South, and there had been tremendous slaughter. It was said that French agents were scattered through that unhappy country inciting the people to throw off the British yoke.

It became perfectly obvious that England was now entering on a struggle in which her national life was at stake; and when it became equally evident that the long-talked-of weakness of the British navy was a glaring fact, and that the vessels in the Channel were unequal to the work they were called upon to do, there was an outburst of popular wrath against the Government, and an angry mob rushed to the Houses of Parliament while the House was sitting; and there is little doubt that, had the mob not been hurled back by a strong body of Volunteer troops, the members of the Government would have fallen a prey to the fury of the people. As it was, the massive railings surrounding the entrance to the House were torn up and scattered about the road, and thousands of windows were smashed. For the moment the public anger seemed to subside, but it burst out again with tenfold fury when the news reached the country that a powerful Russian force had entered Afghanistan; that the Ameer's troops had made common cause with them, and the Allied Army was marching on India.

This information seemed to make the people mad, and a tremendous and excited mob made their way to Downing Street, where a Cabinet Council was sitting. The official residence of the Prime Minister was attacked and wrecked, and several members of the Government were almost torn to pieces. Over and over again the Horse Guards and the Volunteers charged the unfortunate people, and it was only after immense slaughter that they succeeded in driving the excited crowds back. The scene was awful. London had never witnessed anything like it before. Thousands of men and women were slain, and the streets ran red with blood.