For some minutes he had had increasing difficulty in holding his
voice above the noise of interruptions, hostile or friendly. It now
became impossible for him to proceed. A man who was lifted on to the
shoulders of two others began to make a counter-speech, roaring so
that those around could not but attend to him. He declared himself
one of those whom Mutimer had robbed; all his savings for seven
months were gone; he was now out of work, and his family would soon
be starving. Richard's blood boiled as he heard these words.
'You lie!' he bellowed in return; 'I know you. You are the fellow
who said last night that I should run away, and never come at all to
this meeting. I called you a blackguard then, and I call you a liar
now. You have put in my hand six threepences, and no more. The money
you might have saved you constantly got drunk upon. Your money is
waiting for you: you have only to come and apply for it. And I say
the same to all the rest. I am ready to pay all the money back, and
pay it too with interest.'
'Of course you are!' vociferated the other. 'You can't steal it, so
you offer to give it back. We know that game.'
It was the commencement of utter confusion. A hundred voices were
trying to make themselves heard. The great crowd swayed this way and
that.
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