Just then there broke
Down the dim street (and any sound just then,
Shaped from the natural utterance of men,
To still that echoed howl, had brought relief
To her sick senses) a loud shout ... " Stop, thief!
Stop, thief! "
A man rush'd by those women, — rush'd
So vehemently by them, that he brush'd
Their raggedness together, — as he pass'd,
Dropp'd something on the pavement, — and was fast
Wrapp'd in the rainy vapours of the night,
That, in a moment, smear'd him out of sight,
And, in a moment after, let emerge
The trampling crowd; which, all in haste to urge
Its honest chase, swept o'er those women twain,
Regardless, and rush'd on into the rain,
Leaving them both, upon the slippery flags,
Bruised, trampled, — rags in colloquy with rags,
And so, — alone.