Between us and the latter, and backed only by the river, was a great open space half-filled with people, mostly silent and watchful, come together as to a show, and betraying, at present at least, no desire to take an active part in what was going on.
We hurriedly plunged into the throng, and soon caught the clue to the quietness and the lack of movement which seemed to prevail, and which at first sight had puzzled us.

For a moment the absence of the dreadful symptoms we had come to know so well--the flying and pursuing, the random blows, the shrieks and curses and batterings on doors, the tipsy yells, had reassured us.

But the relief was short-lived.

The people before us were under control.

A tighter grip seemed to close upon our hearts as we discerned this, for we knew that the wild fury of the populace, like the rush of a bull, might have given some chance of escape--in this case as in others.