THK CATASTROPHE OF TWELVE HOURS. 6()9 



CHAPTER V. 



" Nature and sickness 

 Debate it at their leisure." 



Airs' Well that Ends Well. 



The sun of early autumn was already declining, and the windows 

 of the mass of houses crowning the summit of the eminence rising 

 from the eastern bank of the Irk shone in his light like molten gold ; 

 whilst daylight, in the lower portions of the town, with its courts and 

 lanes, was becoming gradually fainter, when Sarah issued forth from 

 that house of misery and utter destitution. Sick, faint, and in slight 

 pain, the cool air of evening felt infinitely grateful as she hurried away 

 towards her own home, her mind filled with anxiety for the wretched 

 orphans she had just left. Passing rapidly through several courts 

 which separated her from the main street, a few minutes only elapsed 

 before she entered its gloomy and gothic archway, and the visible 

 darkness now spread over the court filled her with strange feelings 

 of awe, and she panted some time ere she ventured to lift the latch. 



The different inmates of the court were gathering together for the 

 night, and various sounds were issuing from the separate tenements, 

 but in hers all was silent. Even these were shortly hushed, and 

 nothing heard save the cawing of the rooks now assembled on the 

 roofless buildings, answered by the tame bird, which, perched on a 

 piece of broken wood projecting from the second floor, was stretching 

 his body, flapping his clipped wings, and vainly endeavouring to 

 poise himself in the air. 



As she stood in the chill atmosphere, dreading, though hardly 

 knowing why, to enter her home, a startling, conviction of the 

 rashness and danger of the step she had taken burst upon her, 

 and to her disturbed fancy already the plague seemed to have 

 seized upon her family. Hastily opening the door, she was in a 

 moment in the midst of her household, for the hour which released 

 them from labour had been some time past. They were sitting in 

 the deepest silence round the flickering blaze of a wood fire, which 

 occasionally threw out a brighter flame as it was fed by the oldest 

 son from a heap of chips that lay before him, and which he had 

 procured from some building where he had been working. The 

 husband had been informed by his mother-in-law, with constrained 

 composure, of her errand, and all were sitting in the gloom of that 

 miserable apartment, filled with fear and the darkest forebodings. All 

 immediately rose on her entrance, and crowded round her, eagerly 

 inquiring how she was, and in what state she had found the family of 

 poor Mary. Her tale was soon told, and she urgently pressed her 

 husband to go immediately to complete the good work she had begun, 

 by soliciting the town authorities to remove the children to the work- 

 house. He complied reluctantly, not that he was insensible to the 

 miserable state in which they were placed, nor from want of disposi- 

 tion to aid them as far as lay in his power, but he shrank from the 

 idea of appealing to the Board of Health, from a vague fear that they 

 would order them to the hospital. After much intreaty from his wife, 



M.M. No. 108. 4 R 



