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They passed before two chapels opposite to each other, belonging the one
to the Recreative Religionists, the other to the Hallelujah
League--sects which flourished then, and which exist to the present day.
Then the cortège wound from street to street, making a zigzag,
choosing by preference lanes not yet built on, roads where the grass
grew, and deserted alleys.
At length it stopped.
It was in a little lane with no houses except two or three hovels. This
narrow alley was composed of two walls--one on the left, low; the other
on the right, high. The high wall was black, and built in the Saxon
style with narrow holes, scorpions, and large square gratings over
narrow loopholes. There was no window on it, but here and there slits,
old embrasures of pierriers and archegayes. At the foot of this high
wall was seen, like the hole at the bottom of a rat-trap, a little
wicket gate, very elliptical in its arch.
This small door, encased in a full, heavy girding of stone, had a grated
peephole, a heavy knocker, a large lock, hinges thick and knotted, a
bristling of nails, an armour of plates, and hinges, so that altogether
it was more of iron than of wood.
There was no one in the lane--no shops, no passengers; but in it there
was heard a continual noise, as if the lane ran parallel to a torrent.
There was a tumult of voices and of carriages. It seemed as if on the
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