University of Virginia Library

10. CHAPTER X.
The unconquerable Dare organizes a new conspiracy, and the
tyrant is at last stormed in his citadel and overthrown.

Having got the mastery of the school, M'Goggin,
the most inveterate of despots, with the consent
and approbation of the trustees and townsfolk, continued
to exercise his authority in a way that was
designed to annihilate every vestige of liberty, and
make the late republicans slaves indeed. From their
own accounts, he flogged every soul at least once a
day, some of them twice or thrice; and as for General
Dicky Dare, whose dulness at learning still kept
him at school, and whom the tyrant chose to consider
the “sowl of every mischief,” he, from his own
representation, got a flogging once an hour.

But Dicky's soul was all of iron; and, like that
noble metal, the more it was hammered the harder
it grew. Besides, the country was now at war with
Great Britain; and the accounts continually coming
to his ears of battles lost and won, of deeds of valour
by sea and land, on the yawning billow and in the
imminent deadly breach, had kindled his martial
spark anew; and, notwithstanding his daily drubbings,
he was more of a soldier than ever, full of
plots, and stratagems, and treasons. He bore his own
pangs with heroic patience, being engaged, all the
while, meditating a capable and wide revenge; and the

pangs of his schoolmates he beheld even with satisfaction;
for, as he said to me, his friend and confidant,
like a statesman and patriot,—“Though they are a
pack of cowards, you can even thump cowards into
bravery, by Julius Cæsar; and by and by, Bully
M'Goggin,” (which was his honourable title in private,)
“will trounce them up to the sticking point.”

In this, General Dare prophesied aright; for in
six months' time, M'Goggin's cruelty had driven
the boys into such a frenzy of desperation and hatred,
that there was not one of them who would not
have murdered him in cold blood—provided any
one should have shown them how, and made them,
as they called it, free of the hangman. This pitch
of fury was what General Dicky meant by his elegant
expression, “the sticking point;” and the moment
they reached it, he invited them, now ready
for any extremity, to join him in the execution of a
plan of revenge he had long digested, and which
may be considered a monument at once of his genius
and his wrath. And in this great design, for my
sins, Dicky invited me to join him, drawing, in
such agreeable colours—alas, I had drawn it a thousand
times before—such a ravishing picture of the
bliss I must enjoy in paying M'Goggin all his dues,
that even Nanna's image, though it fluttered through
my head as often and as sweetly as ever, could not
entirely banish it from my thoughts. Nevertheless,
I had the grace of refuse assisting in the scheme, and
to repeat the refusal over and over again, until the
moment for executing it had come; and then —
But after all, I went only to enjoy the scene as a
spectator: which is, however, the way in which many
other persons go into a squabble.

The day which was to witness this grand proof of
a school's revenge, and of Dicky Dare's genius and

resolution, was at the close of April; and the year,
1813; a period rendered the more auspicious to the
design by the ferment into which the people of the
Middle States were thrown by the visitations of
sundry British fleets to their waters; Admiral Cockburn
being at that moment employed with all his
forces in the Chesapeake, robbing farmers' henroosts,
and Admiral Beresford attempting the same
thing, though with no great luck, at the mouth of
the Delaware. The news of these gallant forays had
just reached our town, which was kept in a furious
commotion by the passage through it of sailors and
soldiers on their way to the scene of action; and still
more by the patriotic efforts of its citizens, who,
having no better way to show their zeal, mustered
three or four companies of volunteers, who killed
the British without stirring from home, and kept the
town in a terrible tumult, day and night—but particularly
at night—by firing off cannons, and sometimes
their heads and arms; while the juniors and
rabblement at large imitated them, as far as they
could, by burning tar-barrels, firing fifty-sixes—that
is, not fifty six-pound cannons, but fifty-six pound
weights—well rammed with gunpowder, and blowing
their eyes out with squibs and popguns. Nothing
could be more favourable to the scheme of revenge
than the nightly recurrence of these disorders; and
this the great contriver and conspirator, Dicky,
knew full well. And, fortunately, the hubbub on
the night in question was even greater than usual.

M'Goggin's house, which, I mentioned, was near
the Academy, was in a sequestered part of the town,
there being but few other dwellings, and those of
the meanest order, near. It was built on a large lot,
in which M'Goggin had established a kitchen garden,
well stored with potatoes; and there was an

attempt at flowers and fruit-trees near the house,
which stood a little back from the street, and was a
small, and very old and ugly cottage-looking building.
Immediately before the door was a clump of
four Lombardy poplars, ancient and decaying, that
stood, in a square, two on each side of the path, and
had been taken advantage of by some romantic
dweller of former days to construct a kind of rude
alcove, by nailing strips of board on the sides, and
throwing a few beams across, by way of roof; which,
in summer, was usually shaded by vines of gourds
and squashes. At the gate, immediately in advance
of the poplars, was a locust tree. On the right hand
was a cowhouse, and, on the left, a pigpen; and, on
the whole, the cottage was quite romantic enough
looking for Mr M'Goggin.

The happy individuals who, with Mr. M'Goggin,
shared this peaceful abode, were an old negro man,
whom he worked half to death among his potatoes,
and an ill-favoured woman that he called his wife,
but whom every one else considered his slave, as he
was said to be very savage to her, and to make as
great a drudge of her as the negro. Indeed, the boys
had a story that he sometimes beat her; but, though
many believed it, no one knew this for certain. He
had, besides, a great bulldog, which he starved, to
make him ferocious, and therefore the better guard
over his potatoes.

The removal of this dangerous ally of the tyrant
was considered a necessary preliminary to the attack
on the master; and this Dicky effected, the night
preceding the explosion, by training him off with a
piece of meat tied to a string, until he had thrust his
neck into a noose; by means of which he was
dragged to a horse-pond, and there drowned, amid
the rejoicings of the whole band of conspirators.

This being done, the youthful general, upon whose
shoulders fell the execution of every task that had the
inconvenience of being attended with danger, climbed
up the locust tree at the gate, and with a saw, cut
out two small notches, which he then plastered over
with clay, to prevent their being seen next day.
The object of this manœuvre, which concluded all
the preparations required, will be presently seen.

It was not till after ten o'clock on the following
night, that the conspirators assembled on the scene of
action, prepared to carry their vengeful plot into full
execution. They came marvellously well provided
with ammunition—that is, with pebbles and brickbats,
and some, I fear, with more dangerous weapons.
The pebbles and brickbats were chiefly in the hands
of the younger boys, whom General Dicky, having
long and laboriously drilled them for the enterprise,
now proceeded to station so as to surround the
house, and particularly to command the front and
back doors. There was a troop of older boys armed
with fireballs (the general called them grenades,)
made of oakum dipped in turpentine, which they
were ready, by means of lighted segars and a little
gunpowder, to kindle at any moment. These the
General called the Invincible Grenadiers, and stationed,
like the others, both in front and on the rear
of the building, but much nearer than the brickbat
guards; and, besides his grenade, each of these desperadoes
had a good stout crabtree, by way of sidearms.

These arrangements having been effected, and all
in deep silence, the General, who had previously
spied a little into the state of the premises, made a
second reconnoissance, prior to entering upon the
last and grandest of his dispositions. And here I
may observe, that all these things were done with

but little fear of alarming the enemy; for, besides
the hubbub kept up in the town by the volunteers
and patriotic citizens, there was a gale of wind
blowing, and making a great rustling and howling
among the trees and chimneys. Accordingly, General
Dare had no difficulty in making his way to a
window, and through a cranny spying into the proceedings
within; which proceedings some of us,
who had from curiosity crept nearer to the house,
judged to be uncommonly interesting, as we could
hear an occasional murmur of voices, a mingling, as
it seemed, of growling and lamenting, which we
knew not how to account for. The mystery was
soon unravelled by General Dicky Dare, who crept
back, and declared, to our astonishment and indignation,
that President M'Goggin was beating his
wife—that he had seen him strike her with his
hand—that he was drunk or mad, he knew not
which—and that the poor woman, who was in a
great fright, was crying and begging him not to
abuse her.

This intelligence, as may be supposed, produced a
strong effect upon the feelings of the conspirators,
who were not without generous and chivalrous sentiments;
and they swore, one and all, they would
have satisfaction of the ruffian for his brutality to
the woman, as well as for the injuries he had done
themselves. And this discovery, I may also say,
wrought an immediate change in my own resolutions;
for whereas I had, up to this moment, religiously
persisted in the determination I had made not
to take part in the affray, I was now so operated
upon by indignation at M'Goggin's brutishness,
that I fell to work with zeal, anxious to avenge the
poor woman's wrongs; and was, from that moment

to the end, a very prominent ringleader in the whole
row.

The gallant Dare, now doubly excited to diligence,
produced a long rope, having a running
noose at the end. This he threw over the roof of
the arbour, and then laid the noose across the
path, supporting it on little sticks in such a way
that it was impossible any one should pass along the
walk, without striking it with his foot; and the
noose was made so large, that it not only stretched
over the whole path, but would admit a man to pass
through it, standing erect. Near the other extremity
of the rope, was tied by one end a stout bar
of wood, in which was a notch, meant to receive one
end of a second bar that was loose; while its other
end, as well as the end of the bar that was tied, was
designed to be placed each in one of the notches
sawn in the locust tree the preceding evening, at a
height of fifteen or twenty feet from the ground;
the whole forming a kind of trap which would support
a great weight at the end of the rope, until
something should jerk at the noose; in which case
the loose bar that served as a prop, must be dislodged,
the trap sprung, and the weight instantly
fall to the ground, dragging the noose up to the top
of the arbour, and with it Mr. M'Goggin, for whose
sole benefit this beautiful contrivance was invented
by General Dicky.

And supposing we once had the tyrant in the
toils, there was then little fear but that we should be
able to work our will with him at our leisure. The
trap being set, the rope was weighted by some half
a dozen fifty-sixes, which were passed up the tree,
and suspended by Dicky's own hands. We had
previously thrown on the ground, under the noose,
a quantity of straw, sprinkled with turpentine and

sawdust, which we designed to fire, the moment our
tiger was caught, and so give him the benefit of a
moderate roasting and smoking, as an introduction
to what was to follow.

It will be perceived that, in laying this ingenious
trap, for M'Goggin, the great contriver did not anticipate
the possibility of any one else falling into it.
There was good reason, indeed, why no one else
should; for the negro being a very cowardly old
fellow, (who would, moreover, in all probability be
sound asleep in his garret,) and Mrs. M'Goggin a
weak, timid woman, it was inferred our assault
would only confine them more closely to the house;
while M'Goggin, being quite fearless, would undoubtedly
make a rush upon us. The result proved
that the calculations even of Dicky Dare might
be defeated, like those of any other great military
genius.

Our arrangements being at length all completed,
the signal for assault was given, and at a period, as
it proved, extremely critical for Mrs. M'Goggin;
for, just as the word was passing round, “All
ready!” we heard her utter a dismal shriek, as if
the ruffian, her lord and master, was again asserting
his supremacy. We uttered three tremendous
cheers; and then, following them up with yells of
“Down with the tyrant! and schoolboys' rights forever!”
let fly a terrible volley of brickbats and
grenades, by which the shutters of the lower windows
and the glasses in the upper ones were dashed
to atoms; and some half dozen of the latter missiles,
the fire-balls, entering the upper rooms, the house
was straightway illuminated, as if on fire, and filled
with smoke.

The effect of this furious cannonade was immediately
made manifest by a medley of cries, ejaculations,

and roaring curses from within, the woman
squeaking, the negro yelling, and M'Goggin vociferating
I know not what, but, I believe, maledictions
on the heads of himself, us,—“the divil-born schoolwhelps,”—and
every body else; and the woman, in
an ecstacy of terror, was immediately seen darting
through one of the back windows, which had been
dashed open; whence she fled shrieking away, no
one offering her molestation, but on the contrary,
making passage for her, glad to have her out of the
way. At the same moment, the front door was
opened with a crash, and out came rushing, in his
night-gear, mad with fright—not the autocrat
M'Goggin, as we fondly hoped, but the negro-man;
who running blindly forwards, stumbled against the
noose, and was, in a twinkling, jerked up to the top
of the arbour, where he was seen hanging by one
leg, such an extraordinary picture of amazement
and terror as was never before witnessed, and such
a target for our fire-balls, (for a volley was thrown
before we had time to remark what kind of game
we had caught,) as schoolboys never before enjoyed.

The melo-dramatic character of the spectacle,
was, in the same instant, wonderfully heightened,
and its interest to us increased to the highest pitch,
by an incident that immediately befell; for M'Goggin,
who was close at the negro's heels, armed too,
as we discovered to our horror, with a gun, with
which he rushed forward in the act of firing, having
come within reach of the suspended negro, was
seized upon by this distracted personage, who had
been clawing the air in vain, and now succeeded in
fastening one hand amid the master's locks, while
the other, or the fingers thereof, got by mischance
into his mouth. This accident so discomposed the
nerves of the despot, who, I fancy, must have

thought himself pounced upon by some incarnate
devil, darting upon him from the air, that he uttered
a wild howl, dropped his gun, which went off in
falling; and then, forgetting us, fell foul of the
negro, whom he cuffed with maniacal energy, being
himself haled, scratched and hugged by this flying
demon in a style just as eager and extraordinary.

“Bang away!” roared Dicky Dare, firing the
bundle of straw, which instantly burst into flames
and smoke around the two victims, both of whom
were now suspended; for some of the besiegers had
seized upon the rope, and hauled away so furiously,
that, in a trice, M'Goggin lost his footing on the
ground, and was dragged by the inveterate negro
into the air; where they continued to wage a battle
which could only be compared to the aerial fray of
the Genie and the Lady of Beauty, in the Arabian
story; while, all the time, there was such a shower
of fireballs raining against their bodies, and such
volumes of flame and smoke ascending from the
burning straw, as to render the spectacle grand,
ludicrous and horrible altogether; in short, it was
quite indescribable.

And now, while these strange combatants were
pursuing their strange fight, the negro pulling at his
adversary's hair, and yelling with the pain of his
fingers, which M'Goggin was grinding betwixt his
teeth, M'Goggin, on his part, biting and cuffing
and growling, and kicking the air; there arose a cry
that one of the boys was shot, struck by a bullet
from M'Goggin's gun, and that he was dying; intelligence
that afterwards proved to be false, but
which, exasperating feelings that were already rancorous
enough, was followed by furious calls to “Kill
the murdering villain!” and by a rush that many
made upon him with their clubs, with which they

furiously beat him; until the rope, frayed and worn
by the rough bark of the locust, suddenly gave
way, bringing him and the negro, with a most terrible
plump, to the ground.

The negro, who fell uppermost, and had, besides,
the good fortune to fall upon his head, which was
not composed of trifling materials, rolled from his
master, and from the embers of the straw, into which
they had fallen together, kicked his leg free from
the noose, and then ran limping off, yelling like a
madman. As for M'Goggin, upon whom we rushed,
now certain of our prey, he lay without motion; and
a bright blaze from the house now falling on his
visage, there was straightway a cry that we had killed
him. “He's done for!” said General Dare, with
much composure, being the only one that was not
horrified at this result of our enterprise—“He's done
for, by Julius Cæsar!—And so is the house too, or
there's no snakes in Virginnie!”

It was even so: the cottage, which we had been,
for the last few moments, too busy to look at, or
think of, we now discovered was on fire, flames
already gushing out of the upper windows, and the
alarm fast passing through the town, and bringing
crowds of people to the scene of our triumph.

“Right about face—cut dirt!” cried General Dare;
and, in a moment, we were scampering from the
field of battle in all directions, terrified at the thought
of what we had done, and still more at the fear of
what might be the consequences.