Then there was a pause, and a deeper hush, if possible, and a man knelt down at my feet with a blazing torch; the multitude strained forward, gazing, and parting slightly from their seats without knowing it; the monk raised his hands above my head, and his eyes toward the blue sky, and began some words in Latin; in this attitude he droned on and on, a little while, and then stopped.
The multitude sank meekly into their seats, and I was just expecting they would.
Scores of the savages were vigorously plying their stone pestles in preparing masses of poee-poee, and numbers were gathering green bread-fruit and young cocoanuts in the surrounding groves; when an exceeding great multitude, with a view of encouraging the rest in their labours, stood still, and kept shouting most lustily without intermission.
When we reached the rock that abruptly terminated the path, and concealed from us the festive scene, wild shouts and a confused blending of voices assured me that the occasion, whatever it might be, had drawn together a great multitude. Kory-Kory, previous to mounting the elevation, paused for a moment, like a dandy at a ball-room door, to put a hasty finish to his toilet.
At that the Pool became a scene of mad confusion, fighting, and collision, and for some time a
multitude of boats and barges jammed in the northern arch of the Tower Bridge, and the sailors and lightermen had to fight savagely against the people who swarmed upon them from the riverfront.
They are the
multitude. Theirs is the kingdom of the earth.
How can there be any human understanding that can persuade itself there ever was all that infinity of Amadises in the world, or all that
multitude of famous knights, all those emperors of Trebizond, all those Felixmartes of Hircania, all those palfreys, and damsels-errant, and serpents, and monsters, and giants, and marvellous adventures, and enchantments of every kind, and battles, and prodigious encounters, splendid costumes, love-sick princesses, squires made counts, droll dwarfs, love letters, billings and cooings, swashbuckler women, and, in a word, all that nonsense the books of chivalry contain?
But Dinah was hardly conscious of the
multitude. When Hetty had caught sight of the vast crowd in the distance, she had clutched Dinah convulsively.
On one side the religious
multitude, with their sad visages and dark attire, and on the other, the group of despotic rulers, with the high churchman in the midst, and here and there a crucifix at their bosoms, all magnificently clad, flushed with wine, proud of unjust authority, and scoffing at the universal groan.
Up till nightfall, a dull, noiseless agitation, such as precedes great catastrophes, ran through the anxious
multitude. An indescribable uneasiness pervaded all minds, an indefinable sensation which oppressed the heart.
The General spoke very earnestly and impressively, but when he had finished the bear-man began to laugh as if much amused, and his laughter seemed to be echoed by a chorus of merriment from an unseen
multitude. Then, for the first time, Guph began to feel a trifle worried.
She seemed conscious, indeed, that whatever sympathy she might expect lay in the larger and warmer heart of the
multitude; for, as she lifted her eyes towards the balcony, the unhappy woman grew pale, and trembled.
The dexterity with which he managed his steed, and something of youthful grace which he displayed in his manner, won him the favour of the
multitude, which some of the lower classes expressed by calling out, ``Touch Ralph de Vipont's shield touch the Hospitallers shield; he has the least sure seat, he is your cheapest bargain.''
The artifice was answered by a hundred voices raised in imprecations; and the whole of the excited
multitude broke from their order, and spread themselves about the place in wild confusion.
Thus property is as an instrument to living; an estate is a
multitude of instruments; so a slave is an animated instrument, but every one that can minister of himself is more valuable than any other instrument; for if every instrument, at command, or from a preconception of its master's will, could accomplish its work (as the story goes of the statues of Daedalus; or what the poet tells us of the tripods of Vulcan, "that they moved of their own accord into the assembly of the gods "), the shuttle would then weave, and the lyre play of itself; nor would the architect want servants, or the [1254a] master slaves.
