The latter shook himself free just as Jacob, jumping in the air, brought his hand down with all his force on the top of the steeple hat, wedging it over the eyes of the little man.
Before any further effort could be made to seize them, the two lads dived through the crowd, and dashed down a lane leading toward the river.
This sudden interruption to the service caused considerable excitement, and the little preacher, on being extricated from his hat, furiously proclaimed that the lad he had seized, dressed as an apprentice, was a malignant, who had bean taken prisoner at Brentford, and who had foully ill-treated him in a cell in the guardroom at Finsbury.

Instantly a number of men set off in pursuit.
"What had we best do, Jacob ?" Harry said, as he heard the clattering of feet behind them.
"We had best jump into a boat," Jacob said, "and row for it.

It is dark now, and we shall soon be out of their sight." At the bottom of the lane were some stairs, and at these a number of boats.

As it was late in the evening, and the night a foul one, the watermen, not anticipating fares, had left, and the boys, leaping into a boat, put out the sculls, and rowed into the stream, just as their pursuers were heard coming down the lane.
"Which way shall we go ?" Harry said.
"We had better shoot the bridge," Jacob replied.

"Canst row well ?" "Yes," Harry said; "I have practiced at Abingdon with an oar." "Then take the sculls," Jacob said, "and I will steer.