greater value than innumerable thousands of words’ ... You know there
is something worse than apparent failure, and that is to allow yourself
to desist from doing something which you are convinced in your
conscience is right, and I know that women, once convinced that they
are doing what is right, that their rebellion is just, will go on, no matter
what the difficulties, no matter what the dangers, so long as there is a
woman alive to hold up the flag of rebellion. I would rather be a rebel
than a slave. I would rather die than submit; and that is the spirit that
animates this movement. ... I mean to be a voter in the land that gave
me birth or that they shall kill me, and my challenge to the
Government is: Kill me or give me my freedom: I shall force you to
make that choice.^55Emmeline was outlining here an important aspect of militancy, namely that the
struggle in a just cause was a moral issue in itself whereby suffragettes could
maintain their integrity against the oppressive power of the government. The
struggle against that power gave the suffragettes an inner strength, a moral supe-
riority, whereby they could make their mark collectively, in the wide sweep of
history, as a force for reform.
While the meeting was proceeding, Scotland Yard had been informed that
two of its most infamous ‘mice’ were speaking. A strong force of detectives
moved in to guard the doors. As Annie emerged from the main exit, a struggle
broke out as women and men tried, unsuccessfully, to protect her from arrest.
While the fighting was proceeding, Emmeline walked calmly out of the hall,
through the crowd and hailed a taxi which took her back to Westminster
Mansions. Police soon arrived and walked up and down outside her flat, keeping
watch.^56 Five days later, on Saturday 19 July, Emmeline received there a group
of bailies and town councillors who had come to London from Scotland to
appeal to Asquith to repeal the Cat and Mouse Act and to grant the immediate
enfranchisement of women; Asquith refused to meet them.
Later that day, Emmeline successfully outwitted the watching police in a ruse
that caused some amusement. Soon after eleven o’clock at night, a number of
women and men arrived outside Westminster Mansions. Several women then
emerged from the building, one of whom was heavily veiled and of Emmeline’s
build and appearance. Immediately the detectives tried to arrest her, much to
the annoyance of the bystanders who put up a fight and shouted cheers for ‘Mrs.
Pankhurst’. Further police reinforcements arrived and the woman was eventu-
ally driven away with two officers who soon discovered that they had been
chasing a decoy. When detectives returned to the scene, they found that their
quarry had left in a private car that had been waiting in a side street. Emmeline
had slipped away to Hertha Ayrton, at 41 Norfolk Square.
When Emmeline arrived at the London Pavilion the following Monday, she
managed to get past the police cordon outside the building but could not escape
those waiting inside. As she was making her way to the platform, heavily veiled,
PRISONER OF THE CAT AND MOUSE ACT