e of a policeman, a crash, a scream. Tan-cred looked out of
the window of his brougham. He saw a chariot in distress, a chariot such
as would have become an Ondine by the waters of the Serpentine, and the
very last sort of equipage that you could expect to see smashed in the
Poultry. It was really breaking a butterfly upon a wheel to crush its
delicate springs, and crack its dark brown panels, soil its dainty
hammer-cloth, and endanger the lives of its young coachman in a flaxen
wig, and its two tall footmen in short coats, worthy of Cinderella.

The scream, too, came from a fair owner, who was surrounded by clamorous
carmen and city marshals, and who, in an unknown land, was afraid she
might be put in a city compter, because the people in the city had
destroyed her beautiful chariot. Tan-cred let himself out of his
brougham, and not without difficulty contrived, through the narrow and
crowded passage formed by the two lines, to reach the chariot, which was
coming the contrary way to him. Some ruthless officials were persuading
a beautiful woman to leave her carriage, the wheel of which was broken.
'But where am I to go?' she exclaimed. 'Icannot walk. I will not leave
my carriage until you bring me some conveyance. You ought to punish
these people, who have quite ruined my chariot.'

'They say it was your coachman's fault; we have nothing to do with that;
besides, you know who they are. Their employers' name is on the cart,
Brown, Bugsby, and Co., Limehouse. You can have your redress against
Brown, Bugsby, and Co., Lime-house, if your coachman is not in fault;
but you cannot stop up the way, and you had better get out, and let the
carriage be removed to the Steel-yard.'

'What am I to do?' exclaimed the lady with a tearful eye and agitated
face.

'I have a carriage at hand,' said Tancred, who at this moment reached
her, 'and it is quite at your service.'

The lady cast her beautiful eyes, with an expression of astonishment she
could not conceal, at the distinguished youth who thus suddenly appeared
in the midst of insolent carmen, brutal policemen, and all the cynical
amateurs of a mob. Public opinion in the Poultry was against her; her
coachman's wig had excited derision; the footmen had given themselves
airs; there was a strong feeling against the shortcoats. As for the
lady, though at first awed by her beauty and magnificence, they rebelled
against the authority of her manner. Besides, she was not alone. There
w