He was also told that the Midland Railway Company had replaced the
desertions of the first day's panic, had resumed traffic, and was
running northward trains from St. Albans to relieve the congestion of
the home counties.  There was also a placard in Chipping Ongar
announcing that large stores of flour were available in the northern
towns and that within twenty-four hours bread would be distributed
among the starving people in the neighbourhood.  But this intelligence
did not deter him from the plan of escape he had formed, and the three
pressed eastward all day, and heard no more of the bread distribution
than this promise.  Nor, as a matter of fact, did anyone else hear
more of it.  That night fell the seventh star, falling upon Primrose
Hill.  It fell while Miss Elphinstone was watching, for she took that
duty alternately with my brother.  She saw it.