52 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [CHAP. vn. 



posed that he met numbers of them near Newport " running 

 back in all directions/' and though here and there some 

 men remained, they were without arms, and from the 

 quantity of weapons of offence collected afterwards, it 

 was demonstrable that in many cases the men must have 

 flung them away as they fled. But though short, the 

 affair had been bloody. The rioters lost seven men killed 

 besides a number of wounded, and the casualties to their 

 opponents were in some cases serious, although not fatal. 

 Hundreds hurried from the scene of their repulse with 

 such speed that by ten o'clock a.m. they were passing the 

 Lodge Gate of Tredegar Park, about two miles from 

 Newport. Amongst this crowd was John Frost, ex-draper 

 of Newport and would-be conductor of the outbreak, a man 

 who had proved himself as deficient in courage as he had 

 been inefficient in leadership. He was endeavouring to 

 conceal his identity by holding a handkerchief to his face 

 as if he were crying. But on being spoken to and re- 

 cognised, he left the road and going through an archway 

 leading to a coppice wood, was lost sight of. A warrant 

 was granted in the afternoon of the same day, and in 

 the evening, on the door being forced open of the house of 

 a man named Partridge (about a quarter of a mile from the 

 Westgate Hotel in Newport), Frost was found and was 

 immediately taken into custody. On being searched, three 

 pistols all loaded, a powder flask, and some balls were 

 found in his pocket. 



