They reached, in course of time, their halting-place within ten miles of
London, and lay there for the night, after bargaining to be carried on
for a trifle next day, in a light van which was returning empty, and was
to start at five o'clock in the morning. The driver was punctual, the
road good--save for the dust, the weather being very hot and dry--and at
seven in the forenoon of Friday the second of June, one thousand seven
hundred and eighty, they alighted at the foot of Westminster Bridge,
bade their conductor farewell, and stood alone, together, on the
scorching pavement. For the freshness which night sheds upon such
busy thoroughfares had already departed, and the sun was shining with
uncommon lustre.
Chapter 48
Uncertain where to go next, and bewildered by the crowd of people who
were already astir, they sat down in one of the recesses on the bridge,
to rest. They soon became aware that the stream of life was all pouring
one way, and that a vast throng of persons were crossing the river
from the Middlesex to the Surrey shore, in unusual haste and evident
excitement. They were, for the most part, in knots of two or three, or
sometimes half-a-dozen; they spoke little together--many of them were
quite silent; and hurried on as if they had one absorbing object in
view, which was common to them all.
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