When Felix went out into the streets in the afternoon, the crowd was larger and more mischievous.  The constables were quite unable to cope with the mob, the polling booth was closed for the day, and the magistrates had sent to the neighbouring town of Duffield for the military.

There were proofs that the predominant will of the crowd was in favour of Transome for several shops were attacked and they were all of them “Tory shops.”

Felix was soon hotly occupied trying to save a wretched publican named Spratt from the fury of the crowd.  The man had been dragged out into the streets, and Felix had got as near him as he could when a young constable armed with a sabre rushed upon him.  It was a choice of two evils, and quick as lightning Felix frustrated him, the constable fell undermost and Felix got his weapon.  Tucker did not rise immediately, but Felix did not imagine that he was much hurt, and bidding the crowd follow him tried to lead them away from the town.  He hoped that the soldiers would soon arrive, and felt confident that there would be no resistance to a military force.

Suddenly a cry was raised, “Let us go to Treby Manor,” the residence of Sir Maximus Debarry, whose son was the Tory candidate.

From that moment Felix was powerless, and was carried along with the rush.  All he could hope to do was to get to the front terrace of the house, and assure the inmates that the soldiers would arrive quickly.  Just as he approached a large window he heard the horses of the troopers, and then came the words, “Halt!  Fire!” Before he had time to move a bullet whizzed, and passed through Felix Holt’s shoulder—­the shoulder of the arm that bore the sabre.

Felix fell.  The rioters ran confusedly, like terrified sheep.

It was a weary night for Felix, and the next day his wound was declared trivial, and he was lodged in Loumford Jail.  There were three charges against him; that he had assaulted a constable, that he had committed manslaughter (Tucker was dead from spinal concussion), and that he had led a riotous onslaught on a dwelling house.

Four other men were arrested, one for theft, and three others for riot and assault.

III.—­The Trial

A great change took place in the fortunes of Esther in the interval between the riot and the opening of the assizes.  It was found that she, and not Harold Transome, was the rightful owner of the Transome estates.  For Esther’s real name was Bycliffe and not Lyon, and she was the step-daughter only of the minister.  Mr. Lyon had found Esther’s mother, a French woman of great beauty, in destitution—­her husband, an Englishman, lying in some unknown prison.  This Englishman was a Bycliffe—­and heir to the Transome property, and on the proof of his death Mr. Lyon, knowing nothing of Bycliffe’s family, married his widow, who, however, died while Esther was still a tiny child.  Not till the time of the election did Esther learn that her real father was dead.