hitting some damned foreigner. Take a look around you, Ben. On any day, a man can see countless good English working men and women out begging in the streets, desperate for a job, a warm place to sleep, a meager crust of bread with which to stave off hunger, and amongst them all go aloof Italian merchants in their silks, snobbish Flemish craftsmen in their three-piled velvet finery, arrogant German shopkeepers stuffed fat with ale and sausages, shifty gypsy moonmen ever ready to cozen some poor and honest working man out of the few brass farthings he has left. 'Tis not the same city that you left at all, Ben. 'Tis a city that the bloody damned foreigners are taking over. And someone has to stop it."
"And that someone would be you?" said Dickens. "You and the Steady Boys, of course."
"Who better?" Darnley asked. "They are driving our people out into the streets, Ben, leaving them homeless, starving, desperate. These damned foreigners should all go right back to where they came from!"
"And if they do not wish to go, why then, you shall drive them out, is that it?" Dickens said.
"Bloody right I will! Me and the boys. And what is more, the other 'prentice gangs are all getting behind us in this venture!"
"Indeed? Well, then really I must congratulate you, Jack," said Dickens. "You seem to haven taken a disorganized bunch of rakehell roaring boys who have all been at one another's throats and given them a common enemy against whom to unite in opposition. 'Tis an astonishing achievement, truly. And to think that I went abroad to learn the trade of soldiering whilst here you were all of this time, turning yourself into a general completely on your own. I doff my cap to you, Jack. I must say, I am full of admiration at what you have accomplished. Truly, I could not even imagine what a man of your inestimable abilities would ever want from me."
"I want you to join us, Ben," said Darnley, either ignoring Dickens's sarcasm or else missing it completely. " 'Twould be just like the old days once again! You and me, leading the Steady Boys at the forefront of it all… Think of it! We could rouse all the 'prentices in concert and clean out the vermin from this city! And you, as well, Tuck. You can be a part of it. The Steady Boys will always have a place for a strapping, big brawler like youself. Come and join us!"
"I thank you kindly for the offer," Smythe replied, "but I always try my best to avoid brawls whenever possible."
"You mean to say that rather than stand up and be counted for your fellow countrymen, you would prefer to let all these foreigners ruin the livelihoods of honest Englishmen?" said Darnley, with challenge in his voice.
"Tuck has no quarrel with you, Jack," Dickens said.
"Nay, in truth, I do not," Smythe agreed, "but I daresay I have a quarrel with his report. For the truth of the matter is that 'tis not the foreigners in London who are to blame for all the poverty. If the blame should rest with anyone, then it should rest with English landowners who enclose their lands for raising sheep, for as many of my fellow countrymen know all too well, wool is much more profitable in these times than produce. Only as the landed gentry fence in all their lands for grazing sheep instead of tillage, they dispossess their tenant farmers, who are thus left with no work and homeless. And so, not knowing what else they can do, they make the journey to London, desperate and seeking work, only to discover that so many more like them have come that work is difficult to find. But 'tis not the Flemish silversmiths who take the jobs that would have gone to them, as you ought well to know, since you are an apprentice and know something of the crafts. Nor do the Italian merchants compete with them for work, nor the German shopkeepers and craftsmen, for that matter, for a simple country farmer knows nothing of such things. He knows and understands his husbandry, but for the most part, that is the compass of his world, beyond which he
"And that someone would be you?" said Dickens. "You and the Steady Boys, of course."
"Who better?" Darnley asked. "They are driving our people out into the streets, Ben, leaving them homeless, starving, desperate. These damned foreigners should all go right back to where they came from!"
"And if they do not wish to go, why then, you shall drive them out, is that it?" Dickens said.
"Bloody right I will! Me and the boys. And what is more, the other 'prentice gangs are all getting behind us in this venture!"
"Indeed? Well, then really I must congratulate you, Jack," said Dickens. "You seem to haven taken a disorganized bunch of rakehell roaring boys who have all been at one another's throats and given them a common enemy against whom to unite in opposition. 'Tis an astonishing achievement, truly. And to think that I went abroad to learn the trade of soldiering whilst here you were all of this time, turning yourself into a general completely on your own. I doff my cap to you, Jack. I must say, I am full of admiration at what you have accomplished. Truly, I could not even imagine what a man of your inestimable abilities would ever want from me."
"I want you to join us, Ben," said Darnley, either ignoring Dickens's sarcasm or else missing it completely. " 'Twould be just like the old days once again! You and me, leading the Steady Boys at the forefront of it all… Think of it! We could rouse all the 'prentices in concert and clean out the vermin from this city! And you, as well, Tuck. You can be a part of it. The Steady Boys will always have a place for a strapping, big brawler like youself. Come and join us!"
"I thank you kindly for the offer," Smythe replied, "but I always try my best to avoid brawls whenever possible."
"You mean to say that rather than stand up and be counted for your fellow countrymen, you would prefer to let all these foreigners ruin the livelihoods of honest Englishmen?" said Darnley, with challenge in his voice.
"Tuck has no quarrel with you, Jack," Dickens said.
"Nay, in truth, I do not," Smythe agreed, "but I daresay I have a quarrel with his report. For the truth of the matter is that 'tis not the foreigners in London who are to blame for all the poverty. If the blame should rest with anyone, then it should rest with English landowners who enclose their lands for raising sheep, for as many of my fellow countrymen know all too well, wool is much more profitable in these times than produce. Only as the landed gentry fence in all their lands for grazing sheep instead of tillage, they dispossess their tenant farmers, who are thus left with no work and homeless. And so, not knowing what else they can do, they make the journey to London, desperate and seeking work, only to discover that so many more like them have come that work is difficult to find. But 'tis not the Flemish silversmiths who take the jobs that would have gone to them, as you ought well to know, since you are an apprentice and know something of the crafts. Nor do the Italian merchants compete with them for work, nor the German shopkeepers and craftsmen, for that matter, for a simple country farmer knows nothing of such things. He knows and understands his husbandry, but for the most part, that is the compass of his world, beyond which he
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