Bellefontaine's Return
Night had fallen hours ago in the London borough of Southwark. The intersection of Borough avenue and Newcomen street was crowded with carriages flowing north and south, east and west; drovers pushed their teams to pull wagons often overloaded at risky speeds. The intersection was also a dangerous but necessary crossing point for pedestrians out on nocturnal errands: choremen sweeping mud and filth off the sidewalk into black half-frozen rivers rushing down the sides of streets to unseen openings into the endless sewers of London.
