Chapter 61
On that same night--events so crowd upon each other in convulsed and
distracted times, that more than the stirring incidents of a whole life
often become compressed into the compass of four-and-twenty hours--on
that same night, Mr Haredale, having strongly bound his prisoner,
with the assistance of the sexton, and forced him to mount his horse,
conducted him to Chigwell; bent upon procuring a conveyance to London
from that place, and carrying him at once before a justice. The
disturbed state of the town would be, he knew, a sufficient reason for
demanding the murderer's committal to prison before daybreak, as no man
could answer for the security of any of the watch-houses or ordinary
places of detention; and to convey a prisoner through the streets when
the mob were again abroad, would not only be a task of great danger and
hazard, but would be to challenge an attempt at rescue. Directing the
sexton to lead the horse, he walked close by the murderer's side, and in
this order they reached the village about the middle of the night.
The people were all awake and up, for they were fearful of being burnt
in their beds, and sought to comfort and assure each other by watching
in company.
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