But I will not weary the reader with a description of that long
morning and of the longer afternoon.  I did not succeed in getting a
glimpse of the common, for even Horsell and Chobham church towers were
in the hands of the military authorities.  The soldiers I addressed
didn't know anything; the officers were mysterious as well as busy.  I
found people in the town quite secure again in the presence of the
military, and I heard for the first time from Marshall, the
tobacconist, that his son was among the dead on the common.  The
soldiers had made the people on the outskirts of Horsell lock up and
leave their houses.