34/43 The room was thoroughly full; the roof rang with tempestuous acclamations. Cowes and Cullen were in their glory; they roared with delight at each depreciatory epithet applied to Mr.Westlake and his henchmen, and prompted the speakers with words and phrases of a rich vernacular. His friends had come together prepared for gory language, but the murderous instigations of Clerkenwell Green were not repeated with the same crudity. The speaker dealt in negatives; not thus and thus was the social millennium to be brought about, it was open to his hearers to conceive the practical course. For the rest, the heresiarch had a mighty flow of vituperative speech. |