Chapter 2

The storm-blast came down Edgware Road, Shrieking in furious glee, It struck the cab, and both its doors Leaped open, flying free.

I shut those doors, and kept them close With all my might and main; The storm-blast snatched them from my hands, And forced them back again,

It blew the cabman from his perch Towards the hornéd moon; I saw him dimly overhead Sail like a bad balloon.

It blew the bandbox far away Across the angry sea; The English Channel's scattered with Silk and passementerie.

The silly horse within the shaft One moment did remain; And then the harness snapped, and he Went flying through the rain; And fell, a four-legged meteor, Upon the coast of Spain.

_First Voice._ "What makes that cab move on so fast Wherein no horse I find?"

_Second Voice._ "The horse has cut away before; The cab's blown from behind."

Then just against the Harrow Road I made one desperate bound-- A leprous lamp-post and myself Lay mingled in a swound!

And cables snapped, and all things snapped; When the next morn was grey, The _Telegraph_ appeared without Its "Paris Day by Day."