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for down they would have had me had not my
 own party gathered round, on which a treaty of peace was come to on
 the following terms, viz. that the man who tried to pull the bills
 down would guard them to keep them up as long as the religious people
 stayed there. Mr Robinson applied for a warrant against me, but the
 magistrate refused to grant it."

On another occasion, when some people whom he and Mr James Savage had
been addressing in the Park had become unduly excited by a Scotch
preacher, who politely informed them that they were "a generation of
vipers," Mr Bradlaugh stepped forward in an attempt to pacify them, but
much to his surprise was himself seized by police. Fortunately, several
of the bystanders volunteered to go to the police station with him, and
he was immediately released.

Nowadays the Parks and the Commons are the happy hunting-grounds
for the outdoor speaker, where he inculcates almost any doctrine he
chooses, unmolested by the police or the public.

CHAPTER IV.

ARMY LIFE.

But all his debating and writing, all his studying, did not fill my
father's pockets; they, like their owner, grew leaner every day. With
his increasing poverty he fell into debt: it was not much that he owed,
only £4 15s., but small as the sum was, it was more than he could
repay, or see any definite prospect of repaying, unless he could strike
out some new path. My grandfather, Mr Hooper, who knew him then, not
personally, but by seeing and hearing him, used to call him "the young
enthusiast," and many a time in later years recalled his figure as he
appeared in the winter of 1850, in words that have brought tears to
my eyes. Tall, gaunt, white-faced and hollow cheeked, with arms too
long for his sleeves, and trousers too short for his legs, he looked,
what indeed he was, nearly starving. "He looked _hungry_, Hypatia," my
grandfather would say with an expressive shudder; "he looked hungry."
And others have told me the same tale. How _could_ his parents bear to
know that he had come to such a pass!

A subscription was offered him by some Freethinking friends, and
deeply grateful as he was, it yet brought his poverty more alarmingly
before him. One night in December, one of the brothers Barralet met
him looking as I have said, and invited him into a coffee house close
by to discuss some scheme or other. They went in and chatted for some
minutes, but when the waiter had brought the food, it seemed suddenly
to strike the guest that the "scheme" was merely an excuse to give him
a supper, and with one look at his companion, he jumped up and fled out
of the room.

On Sunday, the 15th of December, he was lecturing in Bonner's Fields,
and went home with the sons of Mr Samuel Record to dinner. They tell
that while at dinner he threw his arms up above his head and asked
Mr Record in a jesting tone, "How do you think I should look in
regimentals?" The elder man replied, "My boy, you are too noble for
that." Unfortunately, a noble character could not clothe his long
limbs, or fill his empty stomach, nor could it pay that terrible debt
of £4 15s.

With "soldiering" vaguely in his mind, but yet without a clearly
defined intention of enlisting, he went out two days afterwards,
determined upon doing something to put an end to his present position.
He walked towards Charing Cross, and there saw a poster inviting smart
young men to join the East India Company's Service, and holding out
to recruits the tempting bait of a bounty of £6 10s. This bounty was
an overpowering inducement to the poor lad; his debts amounted to £4
15s.; this £6 10s. would enable him to pay all he owed and stand free
once more. As Mr John M. Robertson justly says in his Memoir,[5] this
incident was typical: "All through his life he had to shape his course
to the paying off of his debts, toil as he would." Mr Headingley[6]
tells that

 "With a firm step, resolutely and soberly, Bradlaugh went down some
 steps to a bar where the recruiting sergeants were in the habit of
 congregating. Here he discerned the very fat, beery, but honest
 sergeant, who was then enlisting for the East India Service, and at
 once volunteered. Bradlaugh little imagined, when he stepped out of
 the cellar and crossed Trafalgar Square once more--this time with
 the fatal shilling in his pocket--that after all he would never
 go to the East Indies, but remain in England to gather around him
 vast multitudes of enthusiastic partisans, who, on that very spot,
 would insist on his taking his seat in Parliament, as the member for
 Northampton; and this, too, in spite of those heterodox views which,
 as yet, had debarred him from earning even the most modest livelihood.

 "It happened, however, that the sergeant of the East India Company
 had 'borrowed a man' from the sergeant of the 50th Foot, and he
 determined honestly to pay back his debt with the person of Bradlaugh;
 so that after some hocus-pocus transactions between the two sergeants,
 Bradlaugh was surprised to find that he had been duly enrolled in
 the 50th Foot, and was destined for home service. Such a trick might
 have been played with impunity on some ignorant country yokel; but
 Bradlaugh at once rebelled, and made matters very uncomfortable for
 all persons concerned.

 "Among other persons to whom he explained all his grievances was the
 medical officer who examined him. This gentleman fortunately took
 considerable interest in the case, and had a long chat with Bradlaugh.
 He could not engage him for India, as he belonged to the home forces,
 but he invited him to look out of the window, where the sergeants were
 pacing about, and select the regiment he might prefer. As a matter of
 fact, Bradlaugh was not particularly disappointed at being compelled
 to remain in England; he objected principally to the lack of respect
 implied in trifling with his professed intentions. He was, therefore,
 willing to accept the compromise suggested by the physician. So long
 as his right of choice was respected, it did not much matter to him in
 which regiment he served.

 "After watching for a little while the soldiers pacing in front of the
 window, his choice fell on a very smart cavalry man, and, being of the
 necessary height, he determined to join his corps."

[Footnote 5: Labour and Law, by Charles Bradlaugh. With Memoir by John
M Robertson.]

[Footnote 6: Biography of Charles Bradlaugh.]

The regiment he elected to join proved to be the 7th (Princess Royal's)
Dragoon Guards, and thus, through the kindly assistance of the doctor,
at the age of "17-3/12 years," he found himself a "full private"
belonging to Her Majesty's forces.

After he enlisted he sent word, not to the father and mother who had
treated him so coldly, but to the grandmother who loved him so dearly.
She sent her daughter Mary to tell the parents of this new turn in
their son's affairs, and the news seems to have been conveyed and
received in a somewhat tragic manner. A day or so before Christmas Day
she came with a face o

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