I have spoken all that one man may, and they will not hear.
Try you now if you cannot make your voice heard." "We will, we will!" shouted a hundred voices; and forthwith knots of influential men began to gather together in corners, talking eagerly together, and gesticulating in their excitement.
And all this while Charles, wild-eyed and haggard, was keeping his place on the little platform, and telling his story again and again to the shifting groups who came and went.

Men and women hung upon his words in a sort of horrible fascination.

Others might talk of horrors guessed at, yet unseen; Charles had witnessed the things of which he spoke, and his words sent thrills of horror through the frames of those who heard.

Women wept, and wrung their hands, and the faces of men grew white and stern.
But upon the opposite side of the square another orator was haranguing the crowd.

A young Quaker woman had got up upon some steps, moved in spirit, as she declared, to denounce the wickedness of war, and to urge the townsmen to peaceful methods.