scape, or even that, in the
hurry of this alarming contingency, he might not have observed it. But
Porteous and his friends alike wanted presence of mind to suggest or
execute such a plan of escape. The former hastily fled from a place
where their own safety seemed compromised, and the latter, in a state
resembling stupefaction, awaited in his apartment the termination of the
enterprise of the rioters. The cessation of the clang of the instruments
with which they had at first attempted to force the door, gave him
momentary relief. The flattering hopes that the military had marched
into the city, either from the Castle or from the suburbs, and that the
rioters were intimidated and dispersing, were soon destroyed by the
broad and glaring-light of the flames, which, illuminating through the
grated window every corner of his apartment, plainly showed that the
mob, determined on their fatal purpose, had adopted a means of forcing
entrance equally desperate and certain.

The sudden glare of light suggested to the stupefied and astonished
object of popular hatred the possibility of concealment or escape. To
rush to the chimney, to ascend it at the risk of suffocation, were the
only means which seem to have occurred to him; but his progress was
speedily stopped by one of those iron gratings, which are, for the sake
of security, usually placed across the vents of buildings designed for
imprisonment. The bars, however, which impeded his farther progress,
served to support him in the situation which he had gained, and he
seized them with the tenacious grasp of one who esteemed himself
clinging to his last hope of existence. The lurid light, which had
filled the apartment, lowered and died away; the sound of shouts was
heard within the walls, and on the narrow and winding stair, which,
cased within one of the turrets, gave access to the upper apartments of
the prison. The huzza of the rioters was answered by a shout wild and
desperate as their own, the cry, namely, of the imprisoned felons, who,
expecting to be liberated in the general confusion, welcomed the mob as
their deliverers. By some of these the apartment of Porteous was
pointed out to his enemies. The obstacle of the lock and bolts was
soon overcome, and from his hiding-place the unfortunate man heard
his enemies search every corner of the apartment, with oaths and
maledictions, which would but shock the reader if we recorded them, but
which served to prove, could it have