and shop girls, going to their labor, recklessly
postponed the duties of the day, and stopped to stare, awestricken, at
the house.

A knot of people in a street, is like a drift of wood in a river. It
chokes up the stream, and catches all the other wood that is
floating down.

The police had in vain tried to clear out this human throng. They had
waged the following contests with their fellow citizens, since six
o'clock A.M.:--first, they had driven the Jersey market wagons to the
street corner below; second, they had tumbled the butcher boys out of
the trees, where they hung like a strange species of fruit; third, they
had cleared a space of ten feet square in front of the house. Having
done thus much, the police paused from exhaustion, and endured the jokes
of the populace with philosophic disdain.

Three policemen guarded the door, within which no one was admitted but
the coroner, the jury, witnesses, a few political friends of the
coroner, who exhibited passes from him, and about twenty-five reporters,
fifteen of whom really belonged to newspapers, and the remainder had a
general connection with the press, which could never be clearly defined
and established. To the magic word "reporter," accompanied by the
flourish of a pencil and a roll of paper, the three policemen smiled
obsequiously, and unbarred the way. Seeing how well this plan worked,
two gentlemen of inelegant leisure, and at least one pickpocket,
provided themselves with rolls of paper and pencils, and, giving the
password, were admitted.

As the carriage rolled round the corner of the street, bringing Marcus
in full view of these acres of men, women, and children--all waiting for
him--the little courage which he had plucked up failed him, as
plucked-up courage generally does. The sound of mingled laughter, jokes,
oaths, and exclamations of impatience reached his ears.

"Great heavens!" he cried; "and I am to face all these people!" If his
features could have been seen, at that instant, by some person who
thought himself skilled in physiognomy, he would have been
unhesitatingly pronounced guilty of several murders. Marcus sat in the
rear part of the coach, and he leaned back to avoid observation.

As the carriage entered the outskirts of the throng, they became aware
that it contained the man of their desires. Five small boys, who had run
all the way from the station house, had brought the exciting
intelligence. The vehicle was at once surrounded by