Untitled - Electric Scotland

1842-50] A. G. BUTLER S REMINISCENCES 145
"The other circumstance happened later on, when,
though still very ill, he was beginning to recover.
"
I have before spoken of the hostile feeling existing
between the Sixth and School. This, owing to a trifling
incident, which would never have happened had he been
well, gave rise to something very like a rebellion. It was,
moreover, the great year of revolutions, and this possibly,
in so receptive a soil as that of Rugby, was not without its
effect. Anyhow, everything was arranged for an outbreak.
Lists were made out, one of which by accident or design
fell into our hands, assigning two, three, or even four
assailants to each of the Sixth. (I
well remember the
comical look of our protagonist, a sturdy, short-haired son
of Anak, when he heard that four picked youths, stout and
fearless, were told off to grapple him.) Only the time and
place were hidden from us ; and even this was at last
made known (as always happens) by a friendly member of
the Eleven, who thought the thing absurd, and gave warn
ing to some other members of the Eleven in his house in
the Sixth, with a view to save them. It was just in time.
That morning the cmeute was to take place at 9.30 in the
school-yard. The signal was to be given by an orator
from the pump. Such, at least, was the information given,
and immediately the whole body
of the Sixth in Price s
house, where the secret oozed out, moved down to the
scene of action, gathering up or summoning
all the other
Pmepostors for the expected conflict. It was a striking
scene. The quadrangle was swarming with the excited
Demos when we arrived, and I remember thinking how
few we were the Thirty Tyrants, as they chose to call us-
and how easily they would have bowled us over if the
fight had once begun. Just, however, when things looked
most angry and the hubbub was loudest, there went round
a sudden murmur (a ^M the Greeks would have called
VOI. I. K