Explore "The Call of the Southern Cross, A Romance of Australia" by John Sandes on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
When the news of the Governor's refusal to liberate the three prisoners reached Ballarat, a wave of indignation surged over the field, and the Reform League met to discuss the situation. Men's minds were powerfully excited, and counsels of violence were freely uttered. Matters were made worse, when a horseman rode into Ballarat on the morning of 28th November with the news that troops were marching to the diggings and would arrive by nightfall.
At Ballan, the mail coach for Ballarat passed the troops on the march. Verner and Juana and the girls scanned the dusty line of soldiers anxiously. Stepping jauntily along, with his musket on his shoulder, marched Corporal Tom, but the coach went past at a fast trot, and Corporal Tom, with his face thickly coated with dust, was unrecognised. Henry Verner was greatly relieved at the discovery that Tom did not appear to be among the soldier's. There was trouble ahead at Ballarat, he felt certain.