Not one amongst them offered to assist their wretched leader.

They left him alone in his sorry plight to get out of it as best he might.

They had not the smallest consideration for one even of their own number overtaken by misfortune.

Roaring with laughter at the frightful picture he presented, they dispersed to their own homes, and the wretched Frederick was left alone in the street to do the best he could with his black, unsavoury plaster.
He strove in vain to clear his vision, and to remove the peruke, which clung to him like a second skin.

He was in a horrible fright lest he should be seen and recognized in this ignominious plight; and although he felt sure his comrades would spread the story of his discomfiture all over the town, he did not wish to be seen by the watch, or by any law-abiding citizens who knew him.
But how to get home was a puzzle, blind and half suffocated as he was; and he scarce knew whether anger or relief came uppermost to his mind when he felt his arm taken, and a voice that he knew said in his ear: "For shame, Frederick! It is a disgrace to London the way you and your comrades go on.