voices ran through the crowd as each talked to his
neighbor, consulting, guessing, and speculating, as temperament
inclined: some were showing placards and printed notices they had
received through the post; some pointed to newspaper paragraphs; others
displayed great rolls of notes; but all talked with a certain air of
sadness that appeared to presage coming misfortune. As ten o'clock drew
nigh, the hour for opening the Bank, the excitement rose to a painful
pitch; every eye was directed to the massive door, whose gorgeous brass
knocker shone with a sort of insolent brilliancy in the sun. At every
moment watches were consulted, and in muttered whispers men broke their
fears to those beside them. Some could descry the heads of people
moving about in the cash-office, where a considerable bustle appeared to
prevail; and even this much of life seemed to raise the spirits of the
crowd, and the rumor ran quickly on every side that the Bank was about
to open. At last the deep bell of the town-hall struck ten. At each fall
of the hammer all expected to see the door move, but it never stirred;
and now the pent-up feeling of the multitude might be marked in a sort
of subdued growl,--a low, ill-boding sound, that seemed ta come out
of the very earth. As if to answer the unspoken anger of the crowd,--a
challenge accepted ere given,--a heavy crash was heard, and the police
proceeded to load with ball in the face of the people,--a demonstration
whose significance there was no mistaking. A cry of angry defiance burst
from the assembled mass at the sight, but as suddenly was checked again
as the massive door was seen to move, and then, with a loud bang, fly
wide open. The rush was now tremendous. With some vague impression that
everything depended upon being amongst the first, the people poured in
with all the force of a mighty torrent. Each, fighting his way as if for
life itself, regardless of the cries of suffering about him, strove to
get forward; nor could all the efforts of the police avail to restrain
them in the slightest. Bleeding, wounded, half suffocated, with bruised
faces and clothes torn to tatters, they struggled on,--no deference
to age, no respect to condition. It was a fearful anarchy, where every
thought of the past was lost in the present emergency. On they poured,
breathless and bloody, with gleaming eyes and faces of demoniacal
meaning; they pushed, they jostled, and they tore, till the first line
gained the counte