Men scarcely dared to speak above their breath of public things, and eyed him fearfully--even the attorneys who licked his boots--as if a careless word spoken in his presence might be their ruin.

For it was known that this careful lawyer stood very near Cromwell, had indeed been his comrade at bed and board from Marston to Dunbar, and, though no Commons man, had more weight than any ten in Parliament.

Mr.Lovel could not but be conscious of the tension among his acquaintances, and had he missed to note it there he would have found it in the streets.

Pride's troopers were everywhere, riding in grim posses or off duty and sombrely puffing tobacco, vast, silent men, lean from the wars.

The citizens on the causeway hurried on their errand, eager to find sanctuary from the biting air and the menace of unknown perils.