While Newgate was burning on the previous night, Barnaby and hisfather, having been passed among the crowd from hand to hand, stoodin Smithfield, on the outskirts of the mob, gazing at the flameslike men who had been suddenly roused from sleep. Some momentselapsed before they could distinctly remember where they were, orhow they got there; or recollected that while they were standingidle and listless spectators of the fire, they had tools in theirhands which had been hurriedly given them that they might freethemselves from their fetters.
Barnaby, heavily ironed as he was, if he had obeyed his firstimpulse, or if he had been alone, would have made his way back tothe side of Hugh, who to his clouded intellect now shone forth withthe new lustre of being his preserver and truest friend. But hisfather"s terror of remaining in the streets, communicated itself to him when he comprehended the full extent of his fears, andimpressed him with the same eagerness to fly to a place of safety.
In a corner of the market among the pens for cattle, Barnaby kneltdown, and pausing every now and then to pass his hand over hisfather"s face, or look up to him with a smile, knocked off hisirons. When he had seen him spring, a free man, to his feet, andhad given vent to the transport of delight which the sightawakened, he went to work upon his own, which soon fell rattlingdown upon the ground, and left his limbs unfettered.
Gliding away together when this task was accomplished, and passingseveral groups of men, each gathered round a stooping figure tohide him from those who passed, but unable to repress the clankingsound of hammers, which told that they too were busy at the samework,--the two fugitives made towards Clerkenwell, and passingthence to Islington, as the nearest point of egress, were quicklyin the fields. After wandering about for a long time, they foundin a pasture near Finchley a poor shed, with walls of mud, and roofof grass and brambles, built for some cowherd, but now deserted.
Here, they lay down for the rest of the night.
They wandered to and fro when it was day, and once Barnaby went off alone to a cluster of little cottages two or three miles away, topurchase some bread and milk. But finding no better shelter, theyreturned to the same place, and lay down again to wait for night.
Heaven alone can tell, with what vague hopes of duty, andaffection; with what strange promptings of nature, intelligible tohim as to a man of radiant mind and most enlarged capacity; withwhat dim memories of children he had played with when a childhimself, who had prattled of their fathers, and of loving them, andbeing loved; with how many half-remembered, dreamy associations ofhis mother"s grief and tears and widowhood; he watched and tendedthis man. But that a vague and shadowy crowd of such ideas cameslowly on him; that they taught him to be sorry when he looked uponhis haggard face, that they overflowed his eyes when he stooped tokiss him, that they kept him waking in a tearful gladness, shadinghim from the sun, fanning him with leaves, soothing him when hestarted in his sleep--ah! what a troubled sleep it was--andwondering when SHE would come to join them and be happy, is thetruth. He sat beside him all that day; listening for her footstepsin every breath of air, looking for her shadow on the gently-wavinggrass, twining the hedge flowers for her pleasure when she came,and his when he awoke; and stooping down from time to time tolisten to his mutterings, and wonder why he was so restless in that quiet place. The sun went down, and night came on, and he wasstill quite tranquil; busied with these thoughts, as if there wereno other people in the world, and the dull cloud of smoke hangingon the immense city in the distance, hid no vices, no crimes, nolife or death, or cause of disquiet--nothing but clear air.
But the hour had now come when he must go alone to find out theblind man (a task that filled him with delight) and bring him tothat place; taking especial care that he was not watched orfollowed on his way back. He listened to the directions he mustobserve, repeated them again and again, and after twice or thricereturning to surprise his father with a light-hearted laugh, wentforth, at last, upon his errand: leaving Grip, whom he had carriedfrom the jail in his arms, to his care.
Fleet of foot, and anxious to return, he sped swiftly on towardsthe city, but could not reach it before the fires began, and madethe night angry with their dismal lustre. When he entered thetown--it might be that he was changed by going there without hislate companions, and on no violent errand; or by the beautifulsolitude in which he had passed the day, or by the thoughts thathad come upon him,--but it seemed peopled by a legion of devils.
This flight and pursuit, this cruel burning and destroying, these dreadful cries and stunning noises, were THEY the good lord"s noblecause!
Though almost stupefied by the bewildering scene, still be foundthe blind man"s house. It was shut up and tenantless.
He waited for a long while, but no one came. At last he withdrew;and as he knew by this time that the soldiers were firing, and manypeople must have been killed, he went down into Holborn, where heheard the great crowd was, to try if he could find Hugh, andpersuade him to avoid the danger, and return with him.