Our Hundred Days in Europe Author:Oliver Wendell Holmes Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: who was in the pack which formed itself at one place in the course of the evening. Some obstruction must have existed afronte, and the vis a tergo became fearful... more » in its pressure on thoso who were caught in the jam. I began thinking of the crushes in which I had been caught, or which I had read and heard of: the terriblo time at the execution of Holloway and Haggerty, where some forty persons were squeezed or trampled to death; the Brooklyn Theatre and other similar tragedies; the crowd I was in at the unveiling of the statue on the column of the Place Vendome, where I felt as one may suppose Giles Corey did when, in his misery, he called for " more weight" to finish him. But there was always a deus ex machina for us when we were in trouble. Looming up' above the crowd was the smiling and encouraging countenance of the ever active, always present, always helpful Mr. Smalley. He cleared a breathing space before us. For a short time it was really a formidable wedging together of people, and if a lady had fainted in the press, she might have run a serious risk before she could have been extricated. No more " marble halls " for us, if we had to undergo the peine forte et dure as thecondition of our presence ! We were both glad to escape from this threatened asphyxia, and move freely about the noble apartments. Lady Rosebery, who was kindness itself, would have had us stay and sit down in comfort at the supper-table, after the crowd had thinned, but we were tired with all we had been through, and ordered our carriage. Ordered our carriage I " I can call spirits from the vasty deep." . . . " But will they come when you do call for themf" The most formidable thing about a London party is getting away from it. " C'est le dvrnier pas qui coute." A crowd of anxious persons in retreat ...« less