Towards this the
crowd now rushed impetuously. The door, however, was found to be slightly
fastened; and, at the moment when this was forced, a loud crash of the
window, both glass and frame, announced that the wretch had made his
escape. He had leaped down; and several persons in the crowd, who burned
with the general fury, leaped after him. These persons had not troubled
themselves about the nature of the ground; but now, on making an
examination of it with torches, they reported it to be an inclined plane,
or embankment of clay, very wet and adhesive. The prints of the man's
footsteps were deeply impressed upon the clay, and therefore easily traced
up to the summit of the embankment; but it was perceived at once that
pursuit would be useless, from the density of the mist. Two feet ahead of
you, a man was entirely withdrawn from your power of identification; and,
on overtaking him, you could not venture to challenge him as the same whom
you had lost sight of. Never, through the course of a whole century, could
there be a night expected more propitious to an escaping criminal: means
of disguise Williams now had in excess; and the dens were innumerable in
the neighborhood of the river that could have sheltered him for years from
troublesome inquiries. But favors are thrown away upon the reckless and
the thankless. That night, when the turning-point offered itself for his
whole future career, Williams took the wrong turn; for, out of mere
indolence, he took the turn to his old lodgings--that place which, in all
England, he had just now the most reason to shun.
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