Excerpt from Black but ComelyEven the pieman could not but admire this pair, so uncommon, so picturesque, and so comely withal, sleek and supple as a leopardess and her cub, with something Of the wild-beast's watchful restlessness, half suspicious, half defiant, its lithe and easy movements, its sinewy, shapely form.But soon the crowd began to sway in that resistless ebb and ¿ow against which, as constituting the danger of an undisciplined multitude, wooden barriers had been erected, and other municipal precautions taken in vain. At or near the gallows something Of unusual interest seemed to have occurred. A seething wave Of humanity, that gathered strength and volume as it rolled in, lifting the pieman Off his feet, dashed him with his portable oven to the ground. Its lid ¿ew open, and the dregs of a London mob were soon scrambling for the contents. Such a struggle caused more crowding, more curiosity, more confusion. Women began to scream and faint, strong men, in the instinct Of self-preservation, took cruel advantage Of their strength, and enhanced by their cowardice the helplessness of the weak. Human beings in a panic are like beasts in a stam pede. Those who have once gone down get little Chance Of coming to the surface again. The pieman, hurled against the gipsy, bore her to the earth. Even as she fell, rose another of those swelling, suffocating surges, that seemed to dash her life out, as a wave dashes a morsel of seaweed against the rock. Blind, pinioned, Choking for breath, brain and senses failing in her death-struggle, the brave instinct Of maternity conquered all. The beautiful gipsy, with one last despairing effort, ¿ung her child into the woman's arms who, crushed herself, was helplessly crushing her down, and so ¿oated away into the unknown.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.