yance of passengers, who were fain to make their way, as they best
could, among carts, baskets, barrows, trucks, casks, bulks, and benches,
and to jostle with porters, hucksters, waggoners, and a motley crowd
of buyers, sellers, pick-pockets, vagrants, and idlers. The air was
perfumed with the stench of rotten leaves and faded fruit; the refuse of
the butchers' stalls, and offal and garbage of a hundred kinds. It
was indispensable to most public conveniences in those days, that they
should be public nuisances likewise; and Fleet Market maintained the
principle to admiration.

To this place, perhaps because its sheds and baskets were a tolerable
substitute for beds, or perhaps because it afforded the means of a hasty
barricade in case of need, many of the rioters had straggled, not only
that night, but for two or three nights before. It was now broad day,
but the morning being cold, a group of them were gathered round a fire
in a public-house, drinking hot purl, and smoking pipes, and planning
new schemes for to-morrow.

Hugh and his two friends being known to most of these men, were received
with signal marks of approbation, and inducted into the most honourable
seats. The room-door was closed and fastened to keep intruders at a
distance, and then they proceeded to exchange news.

'The soldiers have taken possession of The Boot, I hear,' said Hugh.
'Who knows anything about it?'

Several cried that they did; but the majority of the company having
been engaged in the assault upon the Warren, and all present having been
concerned in one or other of the night's expeditions, it proved that
they knew no more than Hugh himself; having been merely warned by each
other, or by the scout, and knowing nothing of their own knowledge.

'We left a man on guard there to-day,' said Hugh, looking round him,
'who is not here. You know who it is--Barnaby, who brought the soldier
down, at Westminster. Has any man seen or heard of him?'

They shook their heads, and murmured an answer in the negative, as each
man looked round and appealed to his fellow; when a noise was heard
without, and a man was heard to say that he wanted Hugh--that he must
see Hugh.

'He is but one man,' cried Hugh to those who kept the door; 'let him
come in.'

'Ay, ay!' muttered the others. 'Let him come in. Let him come in.'

The door was accordingly unlocked and opened. A one-armed man, with
his head and face tied up with a bloody cloth, as though he had b