that its oldest and best, the Planter, had recently been
"At the end of the lecture, thinking us in actual danger from these ruffians, he offered to let us out by a side door; but our lioness stood up and said, in a voice that rings in my ear even now, 'Thank you, sir; no. There are _gentlemen_ enough here to escort us safely.'
"The magic of a great word from a great heart, at certain moments when minds are heated! At that word, sir, the scales fell from a hundred eyes; manhood awoke with a start, ay, and chivalry too; fifty manly fellows were round us in a moment, with glowing cheeks and eyes, and they carried us all home to our several lodgings in triumph. The cowardly caitiffs of the trades-union howled outside, and managed to throw a little dirt upon our gowns, and also hurled epithets, most of which were new to me; but it has since been stated by persons more versed in the language of the _canaille_ that no fouler terms are known to the dregs of mankind.
"Thus did the immodest sex, in the person of the medical student, outrage seven fair samples of the modest sex--to teach them modesty.
"Next morning the police magistrates dealt with a few of our teachers, inflicted severe rebukes on them, and feeble fines.
"The craftier elders disowned the riot in public, but approved it in private; and continued to act in concert with it, only with cunning, not violence. _It caused no honest revulsion of feeling,_ except in the disgusted public, and they had no power to help us.
"The next incident was a stormy debate by the subscribers to the infirmary; and here we had a little feminine revenge, which, outraged as we had been, I hope you will not grudge us.
"Our lioness subscribed five pounds, and became entitled to vote and speech. As the foulest epithets had been hurled at her by the union, and a certain professor had told her, to her face, no respectable woman would come to him and propose to study medicine, she said, publicly, that she had come to his opinion, and respectable women would avoid him--which caused a laugh.
"She also gave a venerable old physician, our bitter opponent, a slap that was not quite so fair. His attendant had been concerned in that outrage, and she assumed--in which she was not justified-- that the old doctor approved. 'To be sure,' said she, 'they say he was intoxicated, and that is the only possible excuse.'