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It was drawing to the close of an aled the precincts of St Paul's since early an to disperse The sun, that had throbbed the livelong day like a

great heart of fire in a sea of brass, was sinking froold, yet Paul's Walk was crowded There were

court-gallants in ruffles and plu the not

over-delicate ditties of the Earl of Rochester; usurers exchanging

gold for bonds worth three ti in dolorous tones the bills of ue-waters and anti-pestilential abominations, whose

merit they loudly extolled; ladies too, richly dressed, and many of them

masked; and booksellers who always made St Paul's a favorite haunt, and

even to this day patronize its precincts, and flourish in the regions of

Paternoster Row and Ave Maria Lane; court pages in rich liveries, pert

and flippant; serving-men out of place, and pickpockets with a keen eye

to business; all clashed and jostled together, raising a din to which

the Plain of Shinar, with its confusion of tongues and Babylonish

workh this discordant sea of his fellow-creatures ca man booted and spurred, whose rich doublet of cherry colored

velvet, edged and spangled with gold, and jaunty hat set slightly on