had been
found to assist us, and the whole peal of eight bells was clashing and
clanging away above the tumult, and spreading the alarm farther and
wider; men on horseback were arriving from the country eager to render
assistance; women were screaming, dogs barking, children crying; and, to
crown the whole, a violent and angry debate was being carried on by the
more influential members of the crowd as to the quarter in which the
supposed conflagration was raging--one party loudly declaring it was in
Middle Street, while the other as vehemently protested it was in West
Street.

The confusion had apparently attained its highest pitch, and the noise
was perfectly deafening, when suddenly a shout was raised, "The engines!
clear the way for the engines!" and in another moment the scampering of
the ~134~~crowd in all directions, the sound of horses' feet galloping,
and the rattle of wheels, announced their approach. While all this was
going on Coleman had contrived silently and unperceived to substitute
two of the by-standers in my place and his own, so that Lawless was the
only one of our party actually engaged in ringing. Seizing the moment,
therefore, when the shout of "The engines!" had attracted the attention
of the loiterers, he touched him on the shoulder, saying, "Now's our
time, come along," and, joining a party who were going out, we reached
the door of the bell-tower unobserved.

The scene which presented itself to our view as we gained the open
street would require the pencil of a Wilkie, or the pen of a Dickens, to
describe. The street widened in front of the bell-tower, so as to make
a kind of square. In the centre of the space thus formed stood the
fire-engine drawn by four post-horses, the post-boys sitting erect in
their saddles, ready to dash forward the moment the firemen (who in
their green coats faced with red, and shining leather helmets,
imparted a somewhat military character to the scene) should succeed
in ascertaining the place at which their assistance was required. The
crowd, which had opened to admit the passage of the engine, immediately
closed round it again in an apparently impenetrable phalanx, the
individual members of which afforded as singular a variety of costume
as can well be imagined, extending from the simple shirt of propriety
to the decorated uniforms of the fire-brigade. As every one who had an
opinion to give was bawling it out at the very top of his voice, whilst
those who had no