Peter Lalor led his war council—carrying their flag—past the teams of diggers still drilling on the flat ground beside their new stringybark citadel, and back up to Bakery Hill. The Southern Cross was once more unfurled.
The new stronghold at Eureka could be glimpsed from the Camp, but the Bakery Hill rise was more prominent. It would attract the attention of potential recruits as well as the wide-eyed glare of the authorities.
A division of Americans who called themselves the Independent Californian Rangers fell in behind Captain Henry Ross. Frederick Vern rallied a troupe of European freedom fighters. There is no evidence of any Chinese being recruited, but it is not impossible that someone like John Alloo, who ran a popular restaurant on the diggings, acted as an interpreter, just as Carboni did for the Italians, French and Prussians. Local Indigenous inhabitants may have been there too. (They were certainly present at the public meetings in Bendigo for the Red Ribbon Rebellion.)
This was the pointy end of a momentous day, and those still standing beneath the flag—now flapping wildly in the hot late-afternoon wind—were here to pledge allegiance to a cause that had escalated rapidly. What had started as a lawful outpouring of communal grievance was now a calculated show of armed resistance. Humble petitioners were suddenly rebels.
Lalor kneeled. He removed his hat and raised his hand towards the flag. We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other, and fight to defend our rights and liberties. A chorus of five hundred true believers chanted Amen.
Then they moved back down the hill to Eureka. Once more they brought the flag with them. This time, it would not return.