It was but a glimpse, but it showed them the crowd, gathering
and clustering round the house: some of the armed men pressing to the
front to break down the doors and windows, some bringing brands from
the nearest fire, some with lifted faces following their course upon the
roof and pointing them out to their companions: all raging and roaring
like the flames they lighted up. They saw some men thirsting for the
treasures of strong liquor which they knew were stored within; they saw
others, who had been wounded, sinking down into the opposite doorways
and dying, solitary wretches, in the midst of all the vast assemblage;
here a frightened woman trying to escape; and there a lost child; and
there a drunken ruffian, unconscious of the death-wound on his head,
raving and fighting to the last. All these things, and even such trivial
incidents as a man with his hat off, or turning round, or stooping down,
or shaking hands with another, they marked distinctly; yet in a glance
so brief, that, in the act of stepping back, they lost the whole, and
saw but the pale faces of each other, and the red sky above them.
Mr Haredale yielded to the entreaties of his companion--more because he
was resolved to defend him, than for any thought he had of his own life,
or any care he entertained for his own safety--and quickly re-entering
the house, they descended the stairs together.
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