The String of Pearls (1850), p. 727

saved by me, and all that sort of thing. Just say nothing about it. Sailors are no great orators, at the best of times, and if he begins to make a speech about his gratitude, you may depend he will never get to the end of it."
"Yes; but he ought to know," said Mrs. Oakley, "who he owes his life to, under providence."
"Hem!" said Ben. He never liked to hear Mrs. Oakley begin to use religious phrases, as they had a tendency to remind him of the late Mr. Lupin.
The door of the drawing-room opened, and all eyes were eagerly bent in that direction. A servant came in, and said—
"The poor man is here, if you please. Is he to come in, now? He seems rather timid."
"Oh, yes," said Ingestrie, u let him come in, by all manner of means, poor fellow. He and I made acquaintance in the sea, and we ought to be good friends, now."
A tall, gigantic figure marched three paces into the room.
"Todd!" shouted Tobias. "It is Todd!"
It was Sweeney Todd! With one glance round the room, he recognised an enemy in every face. With a perfect yell of fear and rage, he turned, and dashed down the staircase. The servant who had conducted him up to the drawing-room, and whom he met in his way, he knocked down with one blow, and in another moment he was in the street. The colonel's horse was close to the door. Todd felled the man who held it by a blow on the top of the head, that took him so suddenly, he could not guard against it, and then springing upon the horse, the murderer raised another wild unearthly kind of shout, and set off at a gallop.
So sudden—so totally unexpected, and so appalling had been the presence of Todd in the drawing-room, that if a spectre had appeared among the people there
assembled, and they had had no possible means of escaping from the belief that it was a spectre, they could not have been more confounded than they were upon this occasion.
Poor Tobias, after uttering the exclamation that we have recorded, fell flat upon the floor. Ben swung backwards in his chair, and went with a tremendous crash right away into a corner. Ingestrie and the colonel rose together, and impeded each other in their efforts to follow Todd. Johanna, shrieking, clung to Ingestrie, and Arabella made a vain attempt to delay the colonel.
"By Heaven he is off!" cried the colonel, as he heard the clatter of the horse's feet.
"No!" shouted Ingestrie; "it cannot be!"
"Easy does it," said Ben, from the corner into which he had fallen. "Easy—Easy!"
"Johanna, unhand me, I implore you," cried Mark Ingestrie. "Do you wish the murderer to be lost sight of? Come on, colonel—you and I must engage in this pursuit. God of Heaven! the idea of me saving Todd from the waves!"
The colonel and Ingestrie seized their hats, and rushed down the stairs, tumbling over the servant in the hall. The next object they came across was the groom who had had charge of the horse. They found him sitting on the pavement, looking as confused as possible.
"Which way has he gone?" cried the colonel.
"The—the man. Round that corner, and Hector has gone after him, like mad, sir. Oh, dear!"
"Hector? Then he will be taken, for I will back Hector to hang upon him like grim death. Come with me to the nearest stable, Ingestrie, and let us get horses! Come—come!"