The General and his friends selected the best front sites that were left vacant, and had their carriages turned around and the horses taken from them and led away to distant stalls and fodder.
Then all reseated themselves and looked around them.
What a sight! what a crowd! what a turmoil! Far as the eye could reach on every side a turbulent sea of humanity!
Where could the people all have sprung from? Had London emptied itself of its population upon Epsom Heath? Had Paris, St. Petersburg and all the great continental cities contributed their thousands? Had earth given up her dead and ocean her prey to swell this crowd?
At first, as I said, all seemed but a turbulent sea of human beings; but gradually individual images came out of the confusion.
Most prominent among these was the Grand Stand, an elevated and railed platform or gallery where the gamblers in horseflesh congregated to make up their betting-books and watch the race.
And most interesting, especially to ladies, was the Royal Box, with its cushioned seats, surmounted by its crown and canopy of state all in burning scarlet and gold. Neither the queen nor any of the princesses occupied the Royal Box; only three or four of the princes, with their lords in waiting, were present.
Yet toward that box many field-glasses were leveled—Anna’s among the rest, for—
“A substitute shines brightly as a king,
Until a king be by.”