Shortly after they had gone away
for the first time, one of the scouts came running in with the news that
they had stopped before Lord Mansfield's house in Bloomsbury Square.
Soon afterwards there came another, and another, and then the first
returned again, and so, by little and little, their tale was this:--That
the mob gathering round Lord Mansfield's house, had called on those
within to open the door, and receiving no reply (for Lord and Lady
Mansfield were at that moment escaping by the backway), forced an
entrance according to their usual custom. That they then began to
demolish the house with great fury, and setting fire to it in several
parts, involved in a common ruin the whole of the costly furniture, the
plate and jewels, a beautiful gallery of pictures, the rarest collection
of manuscripts ever possessed by any one private person in the world,
and worse than all, because nothing could replace this loss, the great
Law Library, on almost every page of which were notes in the Judge's
own hand, of inestimable value,--being the results of the study and
experience of his whole life. That while they were howling and exulting
round the fire, a troop of soldiers, with a magistrate among them, came
up, and being too late (for the mischief was by that time done), began
to disperse the crowd.
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