Presently they
came up to him, passed him, and turned off to the left, leaving him
to continue his troubled voyage southwards. The night air, however,
was a little too much for him, and when he got to Fleet Street he was
under the necessity of supporting himself against a wall. He became
more and more seditious as he became more and more muddled, so that
at last he attracted the attention of a constable who laid hold of
him and locked him up for the night. In the morning he was very much
surprised to find himself in a cell, feeling very miserable, charged
with being drunk and disorderly, and, what was ten times worse, with
uttering blasphemy against the Prince Regent. It may as well be
mentioned here that the greatest precautions had been taken to
prevent any knowledge by the authorities of the proceedings of the
Friends of the People. The Habeas Corpus Act was not yet suspended,
but the times were exceedingly dangerous. The Friends, therefore,
never left in a body nor by the same door. Watch was always kept
with the utmost strictness, not only on the stairs, but from a window
which commanded the street. No written summons was ever sent to
attend any meeting, ordinary or extraordinary.
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