Heins was so far propitiated by this speech that he would have allowed the sailor to stand immediately behind him when the procession passed, if it had so pleased Master Peter; but his curiosity was too active to allow him to stand stock still, as he was desired, when the unaccustomed train of horsemen appeared in sight. He laughed very unceremoniously at the portly figures of the burgomasters, who appeared packed into their seats in much fear of falling. The saddles were very safely peaked before and behind, while the swelling garments of the riders formed a cushion of defence on each side; insomuch that the question seemed rather to be how they should contrive to dismount, than whether there was any danger in their present position. When their predecessors in office appeared in one of the porticoes to receive the new potentates, the work of dismounting began, amidst the solemn officious help of a train of inferior personages; and this was the time chosen by Master Peter to cross the open space from which the crowd had been driven back, and make his way straight into the interior of the building. A hundred hands were held out to stop him, and a hundred voices cried out upon his insolence. But these impediments only roused his passion. He appeared in a tremendous fury for a few moments; but, instead of doing any act of violence, he looked around him as if for some who would execute vengeance for him. Meeting no friendly faces, he dismissed his wrath, and made some mysterious brief appeal to a man in authority, who, with no further hesitation, opened a way for the stranger into the court where the ceremony was about to take place; a privilege which none but the officials connected with the Bank had ever before been known to enjoy.