The Child of Waterloo, or, The Horrors of the Battle-Field — page 183: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

180 THE CHILD OF WATERLOO. ‘‘Did you see a tall, ill-looking man go up just now, my good woman ?” ‘¢A man has just got into the loft,” said the woman, ‘‘and I suppose he is on top of the house by this time.” ‘““That's he,” said the person who questioned her. ‘‘ Follow me, lads, we’ll soon be after him—we’ll soon have him neck and heels—we’ll keep him safe this time.” They, after a short loss of time, burst open the trap-door, and got out of the loft on the top of the houses. The streets were full of people, and all looking anxiously to the roof of the house, and there they could see the mendicant stealing along the house-tops for some six or seven houses, and then they lost sight of bim behind some cbimneys. The officers then came along the roofs, directed by the cries of: the mob from one spot to the other, until they came to the place where the mendicant disappeared, and then they seemed to pause for a moment. ‘“‘There, down there is where he disappeared,” said the mob. The otficers, too, presently disappeared from the eyes of the mob, and did not reappear. The mendicant had got down a kind of platform, that had been constructed for some purpose or other, and then into a house, the door of which opened into a courtway. Here he was detained in the house by some person who waited to detain him, and who would have done so, but that the mendicant struck him down. and then made his escape by stepping into the court. Of course the officers were immediately put upon bis trail, and a sharp chase ensued amongst a number of courts and alleys. Suddenly he slipped and fell. Here was a triumph—the officer’s hands absolutely touched his coat; but, ah! the chance of war—the officer himself fell, and the mendicant dashed into a public-house. and the officers who came up next made a rush into the place, but it was vacant. Looking round they saw an- other room. There were three doors, and each led in a different direction. After a moment’s consideration he made a dash through the opposite door, and then out of it: but it led into a‘ court. which led two ways—they scoured down the one that had no thoroughfare at one end, and but one at the other. No signs of the fugitive could be seen anywhere, and the officers looked at each other in blank dismay. They were done, and panting as they were with exertion, this disappointment was the more bitter; and then inconsvlable were they for the great exertion they had made to no purpose, CHAPTER XXXVI. Poor Mabel’s situation was becoming every day one of more and more anxiety and dread. Indeed, every hour might be said toadd materially to the difficulties whico beset her, and every minute of the hour brought with it 1ts share of evil instead of consolation. . She quite exhausted her mind in vain efforts to discover what could have possibly happened to prevent the Mortons from writ- comicbooks. com