No sooner had the waterworks men relaid the track than our men arrived to undo it again. Charles the blacksmith led the charge. He was the size of two men and the heft of three. Once more the enclosures were uprooted and thrown down.

Somebody had brought torches in a leather toolbag, and the tarry smell as he lit them filled the air. Soon they were blazing all around, showing that we would not be moved and meant to work all night if need be.

An old white-bearded gentleman had come from Stratford to swell our ranks. High over his head, affixed to a walking stick, he carried a card on which was pasted a verse from Leviticus. He was brushed aside by a policeman, as a troop of them arrived to break up the gathering.

We had agreed that half a dozen of us, sacrificial lambs, would give our names and addresses, but the crowd had other ideas.

Don’t give names! Let ’em find out, and let the company do its own dirty work.

Why isn’t the leader here?

Oh, it’s what they all do. Clear off at the first sign of trouble.

Our Mr Musgrave has shown the white feather.

Our Mr Musgrave? You think so? I don’t trust these toffs.

Reckon he’s a turncoat?

Turncoat, or a police agent.

Gentlemen, gentlemen, if you please! (I feared a riot – a disorderly one, where an orderly one was wanted.) Gentlemen! Listen to me. I climbed onto a wheelbarrow, my arms spread wide. You must understand what an injunction is. Mr Musgrave is forbidden by law to attend this site. He will go to prison if he breaks that injunction.

Oh, but he’ll let us go to prison in his stead. I know that sort.

Gentlemen, please. I have here some letters – let me read them. It’s all right, Inspector, this is a peaceful meeting. Gentlemen, Mr Musgrave is on our side. He is your best ally in this – but he must act within the law. We all must, or we are lost.

(I suddenly became aware of a smell of manure, and I wondered what the wheelbarrow had been used for.)

And this is within the law, is it? Laying rails on our land.

It is our land, and they are trespassing on it.

It is our land, and they shall not take it.

Let me read the letters – please.

No injunction against us, though, is there?

Please – let me read to you what Mr Musgrave has to say.

There was quiet for a moment, and I read aloud the letters – one from the waterworks company and one from Musgrave, which he had asked me to convey to the commoners by way of explanation for his absence. Barker hurried over and said a few words to me. I put my hands up again.