{"id":"01KG8AN33PG7XH3HTJ7ESNE20V","cid":"bafkreigcgobstn4r2rd5pov4thfa2gnsua3le465zfwpustglpmv65g72m","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":10792,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.921Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 10","source_file":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","start_line":10732,"text":"of by tens of thousands of the decent people of the city; syllables\r\nobscene and accursed were shouted forth in tones plainly evincing that\r\nthey were the common household breath of their utterers. The\r\nthieves'-quarters, and all the brothels, Lock-and-Sin hospitals for\r\nincurables, and infirmaries and infernoes of hell seemed to have made\r\none combined sortie, and poured out upon earth through the vile vomitory\r\nof some unmentionable cellar.\r\n\r\nThough the hitherto imperfect and casual city experiences of Pierre illy\r\nfitted him entirely to comprehend the specific purport of this terrific\r\nspectacle; still he knew enough by hearsay of the more infamous life of\r\nthe town, to imagine from whence, and who, were the objects before him.\r\nBut all his consciousness at the time was absorbed by the one horrified\r\nthought of Isabel and Delly, forced to witness a sight hardly endurable\r\nfor Pierre himself; or, possibly, sucked into the tumult, and in close\r\npersonal contact with its loathsomeness. Rushing into the crowd,\r\nregardless of the random blows and curses he encountered, he wildly\r\nsought for Isabel, and soon descried her struggling from the delirious\r\nreaching arms of a half-clad reeling whiskerando. With an immense blow\r\nof his mailed fist, he sent the wretch humming, and seizing Isabel,\r\ncried out to two officers near, to clear a path for him to the door.\r\nThey did so. And in a few minutes the panting Isabel was safe in the\r\nopen air. He would have stayed by her, but she conjured him to return\r\nfor Delly, exposed to worse insults than herself. An additional posse of\r\nofficers now approaching, Pierre committing her to the care of one of\r\nthem, and summoning two others to join himself, now re-entered the room.\r\nIn another quarter of it, he saw Delly seized on each hand by two\r\nbleared and half-bloody women, who with fiendish grimaces were\r\nironically twitting her upon her close-necked dress, and had already\r\nstript her handkerchief from her. She uttered a cry of mixed anguish\r\nand joy at the sight of him; and Pierre soon succeeded in returning with\r\nher to Isabel.\r\n\r\nDuring the absence of Pierre in quest of the hack, and while Isabel and\r\nDelly were quietly awaiting his return, the door had suddenly burst\r\nopen, and a detachment of the police drove in, and caged, the entire\r\nmiscellaneous night-occupants of a notorious stew, which they had\r\nstormed and carried during the height of some outrageous orgie. The\r\nfirst sight of the interior of the watch-house, and their being so\r\nquickly huddled together within its four blank walls, had suddenly\r\nlashed the mob into frenzy; so that for the time, oblivious of all other\r\nconsiderations, the entire force of the police was directed to the\r\nquelling of the in-door riot; and consequently, abandoned to their own\r\nprotection, Isabel and Delly had been temporarily left to its mercy.\r\n\r\nIt was no time for Pierre to manifest his indignation at the\r\nofficer--even if he could now find him--who had thus falsified his\r\nindividual pledge concerning the precious charge committed to him. Nor\r\nwas it any time to distress himself about his luggage, still somewhere\r\nwithin. Quitting all, he thrust the bewildered and half-lifeless girls\r\ninto the waiting hack, which, by his orders, drove back in the direction\r\nof the stand, where Pierre had first taken it up.\r\n\r\nWhen the coach had rolled them well away from the tumult, Pierre stopped\r\nit, and said to the man, that he desired to be taken to the nearest\r\nrespectable hotel or boarding-house of any kind, that he knew of. The\r\nfellow--maliciously diverted by what had happened thus far--made some\r\nambiguous and rudely merry rejoinder. But warned by his previous rash\r\nquarrel with the stage-driver, Pierre passed this unnoticed, and in a\r\ncontrolled, calm, decided manner repeated his directions.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 10"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJTDSWGP8QJ7MKTTPBN1C","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AN33EEEHFS2F584PAMDPV","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AN3TSWVCFA6WSDQXAT3DV","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:58.486Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:27.089Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}