第144章

But night-time in this dreadful spot!--night, when the smoke was changed to fire; when every chimney spirited up its flame; and places, that had been dark vaults all day, now shone red-hot, with figures moving to and fro within their blazing jaws, and calling to one another with hoarse cries--night, when the noise of every strange machine was aggravated by the darkness; when the people near them looked wilder and more savage; when bands of unemployed labourers paraded the roads, or clustered by torch-light round their leaders, who told them, in stern language, of their wrongs, and urged them on to frightful cries and threats; when maddened men, armed with sword and firebrand, spurning the tears and prayers of women who would restrain them, rushed forth on errands of terror and destruction, to work no ruin half so surely as their own--night, when carts came rumbling by, filled with rude coffins (for contagious disease and death had been busy with the living crops);when orphans cried, and distracted women shrieked and followed in their wake--night, when some called for bread, and some for drink to drown their cares, and some with tears, and some with staggering feet, and some with bloodshot eyes, went brooding home--night, which, unlike the night that Heaven sends on earth, brought with it no peace, nor quiet, nor signs of blessed sleep--who shall tell the terrors of the night to the young wandering child!

And yet she lay down, with nothing between her and the sky; and, with no fear for herself, for she was past it now, put up a prayer for the poor old man.So very weak and spent, she felt, so very calm and unresisting, that she had no thought of any wants of her own, but prayed that God would raise up some friend for him.She tried to recall the way they had come, and to look in the direction where the fire by which they had slept last night was burning.She had forgotten to ask the name of the poor man, their friend, and when she had remembered him in her prayers, it seemed ungrateful not to turn one look towards the spot where he was watching.

A penny loaf was all they had had that day.It was very little, but even hunger was forgotten in the strange tranquillity that crept over her senses.She lay down, very gently, and, with a quiet smile upon her face, fell into a slumber.It was not like sleep--and yet it must have been, or why those pleasant dreams of the little scholar all night long! Morning came.Much weaker, diminished powers even of sight and hearing, and yet the child made no complaint--perhaps would have made none, even if she had not had that inducement to be silent, travelling by her side.She felt a hopelessness of their ever being extricated together from that forlorn place; a dull conviction that she was very ill, perhaps dying; but no fear or anxiety.

A loathing of food that she was not conscious of until they expended their last penny in the purchase of another loaf, prevented her partaking even of this poor repast.Her grandfather ate greedily, which she was glad to see.

Their way lay through the same scenes as yesterday, with no variety or improvement.There was the same thick air, difficult to breathe; the same blighted ground, the same hopeless prospect, the same misery and distress.Objects appeared more dim, the noise less, the path more rugged and uneven, for sometimes she stumbled, and became roused, as it were, in the effort to prevent herself from falling.Poor child! the cause was in her tottering feet.

Towards the afternoon, her grandfather complained bitterly of hunger.She approached one of the wretched hovels by the way-side, and knocked with her hand upon the door.

'What would you have here?' said a gaunt man, opening it.

'Charity.A morsel of bread.'

'Do you see that?' returned the man hoarsely, pointing to a kind of bundle on the ground.'That's a dead child.I and five hundred other men were thrown out of work, three months ago.That is my third dead child, and last.Do you think I have charity to bestow, or a morsel of bread to spare?'