Meanwhile, on the other side of the wall, two men, having the appearance of chimney-sweeps, and whose faces were covered with soot, were observed in the act of wheeling a hand-truck on which was a large barrel. Fitted in the barrel was a funnel, or tun-dish, which undoubtedly held a fuse. The supposed chimney-sweeps, having wheeled the truck rapidly but carefully to a selected position in close proximity to the prison wall, suddenly deserted it, and disappeared immediately and without question in the adjacent slums. A few people, moved by a fatal curiosity, stopped and gazed at the truck; and a policeman, noticing first the loiterers and then the barrel, approached slowly, and perhaps with some suspicion. Before he could reach the spot, a terrific flame burst from the ignited gunpowder, and with a rending crash a large section of the prison wall fell outward into the street. The unfortunate constable, struck on the temple by a broken paving-stone, fell dead, and by his side a woman, whose face was covered with blood, stumbled with outstretched arms into the gutter and lay there prostrate. Bricks, stones, and fragments of masonry fell in all directions, beating down the shrieking, panic-stricken people as they fled through the adjacent streets. Crash after crash followed, as the walls of other buildings tottered and collapsed; then, as a crowning climax of the outrage, another distinctive detonation came from the Sessions-house, designed, no doubt, to distract attention from the prison. It served, unquestionably, to facilitate the escape of Raggett and three of his fellow-prisoners, who scrambled over the fallen masonry and got free before the dazed and stupefied warders could realise what was happening. Two warders and three prisoners lay wounded and bleeding in the prison-yard. In the neighbouring Sessions-house at the time there were only three cleaners and a man who was employed as usher when the Court was sitting. This man subsequently described what he saw. Awed by the gunpowder explosion and the nerve-destroying sounds that followed it, and ere he had time to rush into the street, he suddenly heard a crash of broken glass, as some hard object was hurled through one of the windows of the Court. As it fell on the floor a blue flame shot into the air; there was an ear-splitting report. The building seemed to rock, huge beams gave way and fell, and every window with its framework was blown outwards. A cloud of dust and powdered mortar filled the air. The women lay huddled and screaming in a heap, and the usher, with a gash in his cheek caused by splintered wood, staggered back against the wall, gazing helplessly upon the shattered seat of justice. * * * * *