
CHAPTER I The World Outside
CHAPTER II Outside Pike Street
CHAPTER III The Theatre
CHAPTER IV A Friend of the People
CHAPTER V The Horizon Widens
CHAPTER VI Tea à La Mode
CHAPTER VII Jephthah
CHAPTER VIII Unconventional Justice
CHAPTER IX A Strain on the Cable
CHAPTER X Disintegration by Degrees
In the bitter spring of 1814 England is locked in an unprecedented freeze. London’s Thames turns to a skating rink, coal prices soar, and the Prince Regent issues desperate orders to clear the blocked highways. Amid the chaos a thin‑skinned printer named Zachariae Coleman finds himself at the center of a violent street brawl, his modest dignity clashing with the brutish drayman who assaults him in broad daylight.
The scuffle draws the attention of a mysterious, well‑dressed stranger who intervenes with uncanny skill, saving Zachariae and whisking him to a modest inn in Clerkenwell. As the two men share brandy and bandages, a tentative friendship forms, hinting at deeper loyalties and the stirrings of a hidden movement. Listeners will be drawn into a vivid portrait of a city on the brink, where personal courage meets the first tremors of a larger revolution.
Language
en
Duration
~7 hours (460K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Release date
2004-10-01
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1831–1913
Best known by the pen name Mark Rutherford, this Victorian writer drew on his own struggles of faith, work, and inner life to create thoughtful, quietly powerful fiction and memoir.
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