Then they were uncertain
what to do next, fearful of the consequences of what they had done
already, and sensible that after all they had carried no point, but had
indeed left matters worse than they had found them. Of those who had
come to The Boot, many dropped off within an hour; such of them as were
really honest and sincere, never, after the morning's experience, to
return, or to hold any communication with their late companions. Others
remained but to refresh themselves, and then went home desponding;
others who had theretofore been regular in their attendance, avoided the
place altogether. The half-dozen prisoners whom the Guards had taken,
were magnified by report into half-a-hundred at least; and their
friends, being faint and sober, so slackened in their energy, and so
drooped beneath these dispiriting influences, that by eight o'clock in
the evening, Dennis, Hugh, and Barnaby, were left alone. Even they were
fast asleep upon the benches, when Gashford's entrance roused them.
'Oh! you ARE here then?' said the Secretary. 'Dear me!'
'Why, where should we be, Muster Gashford!' Dennis rejoined as he rose
into a sitting posture.
'Oh nowhere, nowhere,' he returned with excessive mildness.
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