face. The crowd fell off, as if they had been
laid out for burial, and had risen in their shrouds; and many were seen
to shudder, as though they had been actually dead men, when they chanced
to touch or brush against their garments.

At the bidding of the mob, the houses were all illuminated that
night--lighted up from top to bottom as at a time of public gaiety and
joy. Many years afterwards, old people who lived in their youth near
this part of the city, remembered being in a great glare of light,
within doors and without, and as they looked, timid and frightened
children, from the windows, seeing a FACE go by. Though the whole great
crowd and all its other terrors had faded from their recollection, this
one object remained; alone, distinct, and well remembered. Even in the
unpractised minds of infants, one of these doomed men darting past,
and but an instant seen, was an image of force enough to dim the whole
concourse; to find itself an all-absorbing place, and hold it ever
after.

When this last task had been achieved, the shouts and cries grew
fainter; the clank of fetters, which had resounded on all sides as
the prisoners escaped, was heard no more; all the noises of the crowd
subsided into a hoarse and sullen murmur as it passed into the distance;
and when the human tide had rolled away, a melancholy heap of smoking
ruins marked the spot where it had lately chafed and roared.

Chapter 66

Although he had had no rest upon the previous night, and had watched
with little intermission for some weeks past, sleeping only in the day
by starts and snatches, Mr Haredale, from the dawn of morning until
sunset, sought his niece in every place where he deemed it possible she
could have taken refuge. All day long, nothing, save a draught of water,
passed his lips; though he prosecuted his inquiries far and wide, and
never so much as sat down, once.

In every quarter he could think of; at Chigwell and in London; at the
houses of the tradespeople with whom he dealt, and of the friends he
knew; he pursued his search. A prey to the most harrowing anxieties and
apprehensions, he went from magistrate to magistrate, and finally to the
Secretary of State. The only comfort he received was from this minister,
who assured him that the Government, being now driven to the exercise
of the extreme prerogatives of the Crown, were determined to exert them;
that a proclamation would probably be out upon the morrow, giving to the
m