It seemed not a minute's work from first to last. He staggered to his
feet, incredulous of what had happened, when the yard was filled
again, and a crowd rushed on, hurrying Barnaby among them. In another
minute--not so much: another minute! the same instant, with no lapse or
interval between!--he and his son were being passed from hand to hand,
through the dense crowd in the street, and were glancing backward at a
burning pile which some one said was Newgate.
From the moment of their first entrance into the prison, the crowd
dispersed themselves about it, and swarmed into every chink and crevice,
as if they had a perfect acquaintance with its innermost parts, and bore
in their minds an exact plan of the whole. For this immediate knowledge
of the place, they were, no doubt, in a great degree, indebted to the
hangman, who stood in the lobby, directing some to go this way, some
that, and some the other; and who materially assisted in bringing about
the wonderful rapidity with which the release of the prisoners was
effected.
But this functionary of the law reserved one important piece of
intelligence, and kept it snugly to himself. When he had issued his
instructions relative to every other part of the building, and the mob
were dispersed from end to end, and busy at their work, he took a bundle
of keys from a kind of cupboard in the wall, and going by a kind of
passage near the chapel (it joined the governors house, and was then
on fire), betook himself to the condemned cells, which were a series of
small, strong, dismal rooms, opening on a low gallery, guarded, at the
end at which he entered, by a strong iron wicket, and at its opposite
extremity by two doors and a thick grate.
Pages:
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863