I was beyond fearing for myself now; I was in a kind of madness of pity and longing.

And, at the last I saw Mr.Whitbread raise his head and look at the Sheriff.
There rose then, as he made a sign, a great murmur from all the crowd.

I had thought that they would have been impatient, but they were not; and had kept silence very well; and I think that this spectacle of the five men praying had touched many hearts there.

Now, however, when the end approached, they seemed to awaken again, and to look for it; and they began to move their heads about to see what was done, so that the crowd was like a field of wheat when the wind goes over it.
Then fell a horrible thing.
There broke out suddenly a cry, that was like a trumpet suddenly sounding after drums--of a different kind altogether from the murmuring that was before.

I turned my head whence it came, and saw a great confusion break out in the outskirts of the crowd.