master took the other, and leading him away with all speed.

Sensible, from a strange lightness in his head, and a difficulty in
fixing his thoughts on anything, even to the extent of bearing his
companions in his mind for a minute together without looking at them,
that his brain was affected by the agitation and suffering through which
he had passed, and to which he was still a prey, Mr Haredale let them
lead him where they would. As they went along, he was conscious of
having no command over what he said or thought, and that he had a fear
of going mad.

The distiller lived, as he had told him when they first met, on Holborn
Hill, where he had great storehouses and drove a large trade. They
approached his house by a back entrance, lest they should attract the
notice of the crowd, and went into an upper room which faced towards the
street; the windows, however, in common with those of every other room
in the house, were boarded up inside, in order that, out of doors, all
might appear quite dark.

They laid him on a sofa in this chamber, perfectly insensible; but John
immediately fetching a surgeon, who took from him a large quantity of
blood, he gradually came to himself. As he was, for the time, too weak
to walk, they had no difficulty in persuading him to remain there all
night, and got him to bed without loss of a minute. That done, they
gave him cordial and some toast, and presently a pretty strong
composing-draught, under the influence of which he soon fell into a
lethargy, and, for a time, forgot his troubles.

The vintner, who was a very hearty old fellow and a worthy man, had
no thoughts of going to bed himself, for he had received several
threatening warnings from the rioters, and had indeed gone out that
evening to try and gather from the conversation of the mob whether his
house was to be the next attacked. He sat all night in an easy-chair in
the same room--dozing a little now and then--and received from time
to time the reports of John Grueby and two or three other trustworthy
persons in his employ, who went out into the streets as scouts; and
for whose entertainment an ample allowance of good cheer (which the old
vintner, despite his anxiety, now and then attacked himself) was set
forth in an adjoining chamber.

These accounts were of a sufficiently alarming nature from the first;
but as the night wore on, they grew so much worse, and involved such a
fearful amount of riot and destruction, that in co