and George Lansbury were amongst the many men speakers.^8 Four days later,
while Emmeline was on a week’s motoring tour of Normandy with Mabel Tuke,
Gladys Evans attempted to set fire to the Theatre Royal, in Dublin, where
Asquith had just seen a performance; later that evening, as the Prime Minister
was driving to the Gresham Hotel with his wife and John Redmond, the Irish
political leader, Mary Leigh placed a small hatchet, on which was inscribed
‘Votes for women’, into the carriage. Gladys Evans and Mary Leigh were both
subsequently sentenced to five years’ imprisonment although these sentences
eventually lapsed.^9 Yet again, neither Emmeline nor Christabel knew before-
hand about the protest that these two militants engaged in although, once they
did, they were ‘determined to stand by them’.^10
After Emmeline had moved to a quieter and cheaper hotel in Boulogne, the
Hotel Dervaux, which charged £10 a day and which was paid, like all her
expenses, out of WSPU funds, she then made a brief trip to London. The rooms
in Clement’s Inn that the WSPU were using had been reclaimed by the land-
lord and Emmeline was instrumental in finding new headquarters, at Lincoln’s
Inn House, and in negotiating the lease.^11 She then travelled back to France,
and on to Evian les Bains, near Geneva, to take her cure. The incessant rain
and the rigours of her treatment made the time seem dull, and she was relieved
when Mabel Tuke and Ethel Smyth arrived. Emmeline stayed longer than she
intended since the doctor discovered ‘a bladder trouble of old standing for
which the Evian water is very good’. The extra days also enabled her to see her
‘oldest friend’, Noémie, who still lived near Geneva, and was due to return
home soon.^12 When Mary Leigh and Gladys Evans were sentenced in August to
five years’ imprisonment, Emmeline wrote for her followers a message of encour-
agement that appeared in the 16 August issue of Votes for Women:
This latest outrageous act of reprisal, while it covers the Government
with shame, will only strengthen the determination of militant
Suffragists to fight for women’s freedom to the end, at no matter what
cost to themselves.
Mrs. Leigh and Miss Evans ... whom we love and honour for their
splendid courage, have brought the agitation to a crisis where the
Government must face two alternatives, either they must prepare to
send large numbers of women to penal servitude, or give women the
vote without further delay.
In a few short weeks the holidays will be over, and the W.S.P.U. will
be at work again. My enforced absence during the past critical weeks
has been hard to bear, but when Parliament re-opens I shall be with
you, ready to fight by your side and prepared to share the penalties
which this contemptible Government may think fit to impose in the
vain hope of crushing our movement. The end is in sight, and very
soon the victory will be ours.^13BREAK WITH THE PETHICK LAWRENCES