Thence the way was solitary and open across the moor to the hill whereon
the Ivell fly awaited them.

'I have noticed for some time,' she said, 'a lurid glare over the
Durnover end of the town. It seems to come from somewhere about Mixen
Lane.'

'The lamps,' he suggested.

'There's not a lamp as big as a rushlight in the whole lane. It is where
the cholera is worst.'

By Standfast Corner, a little beyond the Cross, they suddenly obtained an
end view of the lane. Large bonfires were burning in the middle of the
way, with a view to purifying the air; and from the wretched tenements
with which the lane was lined in those days persons were bringing out
bedding and clothing. Some was thrown into the fires, the rest placed in
wheel-barrows and wheeled into the moor directly in the track of the
fugitives.

They followed on, and came up to where a vast copper was set in the open
air. Here the linen was boiled and disinfected. By the light of the
lanterns Laura discovered that her husband was standing by the copper,
and that it was he who unloaded the barrow and immersed its contents. The
night was so calm and muggy that the conversation by the copper reached
her ears.

'Are there many more loads to-night?'

'There's the clothes o' they that died this afternoon, sir. But that