Never quick to detect the course of public opinion, he was now still further disabled by his blindness.

There is great pathos in the thought of the sightless patriot hungering for tidings, "as the Red Sea for ghosts," and swayed hither and thither by the narratives and comments of passionate or interested reporters.

At last something occurred which none could misunderstand or misrepresent.

On February 11th, about ten at night, Mr.Samuel Pepys, being in Cheapside, heard "all the bells in all the churches a-ringing.
But the common joy that was everywhere to be seen! The number of bonfires, there being fourteen between St.Dunstan's and Temple Bar, and at Strand Bridge I could at one view tell thirty-one fires.

In King Street, seven or eight; and all around burning, roasting, and drinking for rumps.