Nor had they any need to hear it, either, for they could see it in the people's faces.

So surely as another quarter chimed, there was a movement in the crowd--as if something had passed over it--as if the light upon them had been changed--in which the fact was readable as on a brazen dial, figured by a giant's hand.
Three quarters past eleven! The murmur now was deafening, yet every man seemed mute.

Look where you would among the crowd, you saw strained eyes and lips compressed; it would have been difficult for the most vigilant observer to point this way or that, and say that yonder man had cried out.

It were as easy to detect the motion of lips in a sea-shell.
Three quarters past eleven! Many spectators who had retired from the windows, came back refreshed, as though their watch had just begun.
Those who had fallen asleep, roused themselves; and every person in the crowd made one last effort to better his position--which caused a press against the sturdy barriers that made them bend and yield like twigs.
The officers, who until now had kept together, fell into their several positions, and gave the words of command.

Swords were drawn, muskets shouldered, and the bright steel winding its way among the crowd, gleamed and glittered in the sun like a river.