Blair Collection > Rhys Lewis, minister of Bethel

RHYS LEWIS. 127
equally guilty with them, not only of creating a disturbance
and breaking the law in this fashion, but also of poaching on
gentlemen's estates."
As soon as sentence was delivered, there was a general move-
ment in court, the noise of people's feet and the talk being
so loud, that hardly could I hear myself sobbing— which I did
to some effect. "Will sympathised with me most sincerely and
did his best to comfort me. So poignant was my sorrow that my
friend was, for a minute or so, at a loss to know how to assuage
it. Suddenly, however, a thought struck him. He handed over
all he possessed to me, namely, his pocket knife, which, he re-
marked with emphasis, he gave me to keep for ever. I have
the knife to this day ; and although instrinsically not worth
sixpence, I rank it with the mite of the widow and, valuing it
as the sacrifice of a heart full of disinterested compassion, I
would not for a good deal part with it.
The interest taken in the trial was manifested by the size
of the crowd which had by this time gathered outside the Court
House, unwilling to disperse without a last look at the
prisoners, as they were being conveyed to the county gaol. I
can answer for it that the majority of the Eed Fields' workmen
were sober, industrious, and moral ; but amongst them, as it
commonly happens in large works, there were a number of
worthless characters, given to excessive drinking, the pity being
that the best class often got blamed for their misdeeds.
Several of these latter had, on the morning in question, been
soaking about the public houses, and were not in the best of
tempers on that account. But there, I see I am constantly
slijjping into detail, despite my promise to myself not to do so.
How some of the colliers set fiercely upon the police who were
conveying my brother and his associates to prison ; how 'the
assailants were arrested, tried, and found guilty; how the
military were called out, were attacked and beaten ; and how,
under crudest provocation, they opened fire upon the rioters,
killing several, and so on, it does not concern me to narrate.
I can say this much, when the disturbacce was at its highest,
the feeling of the majority, which included some men of reason
and intelligence, was in favour of the colliers; but when things
had cooled down, and opportunity was given of looking calmly