mparison with these
new tidings all the previous disturbances sunk to nothing.

The first intelligence that came, was of the taking of Newgate, and the
escape of all the prisoners, whose track, as they made up Holborn and
into the adjacent streets, was proclaimed to those citizens who were
shut up in their houses, by the rattling of their chains, which formed
a dismal concert, and was heard in every direction, as though so many
forges were at work. The flames too, shone so brightly through the
vintner's skylights, that the rooms and staircases below were nearly as
light as in broad day; while the distant shouting of the mob seemed to
shake the very walls and ceilings.

At length they were heard approaching the house, and some minutes of
terrible anxiety ensued. They came close up, and stopped before it;
but after giving three loud yells, went on. And although they returned
several times that night, creating new alarms each time, they did
nothing there; having their hands full. Shortly after they had gone away
for the first time, one of the scouts came running in with the news that
they had stopped before Lord Mansfield's house in Bloomsbury Square.

Soon afterwards there came another, and another, and then the first
returned again, and so, by little and little, their tale was this:--That
the mob gathering round Lord Mansfield's house, had called on those
within to open the door, and receiving no reply (for Lord and Lady
Mansfield were at that moment escaping by the backway), forced an
entrance according to their usual custom. That they then began to
demolish the house with great fury, and setting fire to it in several
parts, involved in a common ruin the whole of the costly furniture, the
plate and jewels, a beautiful gallery of pictures, the rarest collection
of manuscripts ever possessed by any one private person in the world,
and worse than all, because nothing could replace this loss, the great
Law Library, on almost every page of which were notes in the Judge's
own hand, of inestimable value,--being the results of the study and
experience of his whole life. That while they were howling and exulting
round the fire, a troop of soldiers, with a magistrate among them, came
up, and being too late (for the mischief was by that time done), began
to disperse the crowd. That the Riot Act being read, and the crowd still
resisting, the soldiers received orders to fire, and levelling their
muskets shot dead at the first disc