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200 OLIVER TWIST. “They have him now,” cried a man on the nearest bridge. “ Hurrah!” The crowd grew light with uncovered heads, and again the shout uprose. “T promise fifty pounds,” cried an old gentleman from the same quarter ; “ fifty unds to the man who takes him alive. will remain here till he comes to ask me for it.” There was another roar. At this moment the word was passed among the crowd that the door was forced at last, Jadder had mounted into the room. The stream abruptly turned as this intelligence ran from mouth to mouth, and the people at the windows seeing those upon the bridges pouring back, quitted their stations, and running into the street, joined the concourse that now thronged pellmell to the spot they had left, each man crushing and striving with his neighbour, and all panting with impatience to get near the door and look upon the criminal, as the officers brought him out. The cries and shrieks of those who were pressed almost to suffocation, or trampled down and trodden under foot in the confusion, were dreadful: the narrow ways were completely blocked up; and at this time, between the rush of some to regain the space in front of the house, and the unavailing struggles of others to extricate themselves from the mass, the immediate attention was distracted from the murderer, although the universal eagerness for his capture was, if possible, increased. The man had shrunk down, thoroughly quelled by the ferocity of the crowd and the impossibility of escape, but seeing this sudden change with no less rapidity than it occurred, he sprang upon his feet, determined to make one last effort for his life by dropping into the ditch, and at the risk of being stifled, endeavouring to creep away in the darkness and confusion. Roused into new strength and energy, and stimulated by the noise within the house, which announced that an entrance had really been effected, he set his foot against the stack of chimneys, fastened one end of the rope tightly and firmly round it, and with the other made a strong running noose by the aid of his hands and teeth almost in a second. He could less distance of the ground than his own height, and had his knife ready in his nand to cut it then and drop. At the very instant that he brought the beneath his arm-pits, and when the old gentlemam before mentioned (who had clung so tight to the railings of the bridge as to resist the force of the crowd, and retain his position) earnestly warned those about him that the man was about to lower himself down — at that very instant the murderer, looking behind him on the roof, threw his arms above his head, and uttered a yell of terror. c The eyes again!” he cried, in an unearthly screech. Staggering as if struck by lightning, he lost his balance and tumbled over the parapet: the noose was at his neck ; it ran up with his weight tight as a bow-string, and swift as the arrow it speeds. He fell for five-and-thirty feet. There was a sudden jerk, a terrific convulsion of the limbs, and there he hung, with the open knife clenched in his stiffening hand. The old chimney quivered with the shock, but it stood it bravely. The murderer swung lifeless against the wall, and the boy, thrusting aside the dangling body, which obscured his view, called to the ore to come and take him out for God’s sake. “iam A dog, which had lain concealed till now, ran backwards and forwards on the parapet with a dismal howl, and, collecting himself for a spring, jumped for the dead man’s shoulders. Missing his aim, he fell into the ditch, turning completely over as he went, and striking his head against a stone, dashed out his brains. CHAPTER THE THIRTEENTH, Affording an explanation of more mysteries than one, and comprehending a proposal of marriage, with no word of settlement or pin-money. THE events narrated in the last chapter were yet but two days old, when Oliver found himself at three o’clock in the afternoon, in a travelling carriage rolling fast towards his native town. Mrs. Maylie and Rose, and Mrs. Bedwin and the good Doctor, were with him, and Mr. Brownlow followed in a post-chaise, accompanied by one other person, whose name had not been mentioned. They had not talked much -upon the way, for Oliver was in a flutter of agitation and uncertainty, which deprived him of the power of collecting his thoughts, and almost of speech, and appeared to have scarcely less effect on his companions, who shared it in at least an equal degree. Ile and the two ladies had been
