One minute afterward, I saw that the attempt to retrace my steps would be
not only vain but dangerous; and, compelled to make the best of what I
could not now avoid, I was pressed onward as far as the outlet of
Fleet-lane, when, contriving by main force to get my back against the end
of a stout tressle upon which seven or eight fellows were mounted, I
managed to maintain my position until the horrible ceremony was concluded.
It wanted yet full twenty minutes to eight o'clock, when I stood
fast-wedged within a few fathoms' length of the scaffold. As far as the
eye could pierce through the misty glare, was one unbroken sea of human
heads and faces; the outer masses reeling, staggering and driving in
fitful currents against the firm, compact and solid centre, fixed and
immovable as though charmed to stone by the horrible fascination of the
gibbet. Far beyond and above all the tower of St. Sepulchre's, magnified
by the morning haze, showed like a tall, transparent cloud, from which was
soon to burst the thunder-peal of doom upon the miserable man who had shed
his brother's blood. The subdued murmur of the immense mob rose and
swelled like the hollow roar of a distant but angry sea. Here and there a
tall and burly ruffian, pre-eminent above the crowd, signaled his fellow
in the distance, or bellowed a ghastly witticism upon the coming horror
across the heads of the throng. Women--if women they are to be called, who,
like vultures to the carcass, flock to the spectacle of dying agonies--of
all ages but of one indescribably vicious and repulsive class, had pushed,
and struggled, and fought their way to an eligible point of view, where
they awaited with masculine impatience the close of the fearful drama of
which they formed so revolting a part. Children of tender age, who must
have taken up their position ere the day had dawned, and before the
arrival of the masses, made an unsightly addition to the scene. A boy of
nine, borne aloft on the shoulders of a man of sixty, who stood by my
side, expressed his uncontrollable delight at the tragedy he was about to
witness. At every window in the houses opposite, the debtors' door, and
indeed wherever a view of the gallows could be obtained, parties of
pleasure were assembled for the recreation of the morning. The roofs, the
parapets, the protruding eaves of the shops, all were populous with life;
the very lamp-posts and projecting sign-boards were clung and clustered
over with eager be