route when he came into towne this morning. The route would go past Saint Mary's where it would turn to the left toward the Sheep Market. After passing the Sheep Market, the route would turn right toward All Saints'. After passing All Saints', it would follow High Street to Saint George's Street. The bulls would then run south on Saint George's Street near to Saint George's church and then turn right to Saint Mary's church and then south again through the gates, over the bridge and then back to the meadow. The bulls would be tired from running at that point. Once in the meadow, the bulls would be slaughtered and the meat would be shared with the people of the towne.
Everyone in the towne was very excited. Many people would be watching from their windows and cheering for the runners.
It seemed that Bromley had gotten to the meadow none too soon. The mayor and sheriff soon came riding on horseback and cheers went up from the crowd. Finally, the run was about to begin. The mayor gave encouragement to the runners and reminded them to avoid getting in front of the running bulls. The sheriff told the runners to go and wait for the bulls on the towne bridge. The runners lined the bridge, standing on the small block walls that ran along either side of the bridge. In this fashion, the runners were able to avoid the charging bulls as they started the run.
Bromley took his position on the bridge and watched as the bulls were led to the bridge. The bulls became harder to control as they neared the bridge. It was as though they sensed what was happening. The breath of the bulls' was visible in the chilled air and it seemed as though steam was pouring from their nostrils. Their eyes were wide and filled with anger. Those who were leading the bulls released them at the entrance to the bridge and others started whipping the bulls with sticks from behind. It seemed to Bromley that chaos was unleashed and if there were animals from hell, these were they.
As the bulls charged over the bridge toward the gates, the men on the sides of the bridge whipped the bulls with long sticks as they passed. Some men became unstable on their feet from the excitement and fell from the bridge into the water below. It almost seemed that they were the lucky ones. At least one other man fell into the path of the charging bulls. As he did, he instinctively grabbed the person next to him to catch himself, but all he managed to do was to pull his companion into the path of the bulls as well. It all happened so rapidly that Bromley couldn't tell whether they would be okay.
Suddenly, the bulls were running past Bromley and he started swinging his long stick. The sharp whack of his stick told him that he had made contact with a couple of bulls. As soon as the last bull had passed him, Bromley jumped down and onto the bridge with the throng of other men who had done the same. Bromley hadn't considered that the crush of the men could possibly prove as deadly as the crush of the bulls. For a moment he wondered why he had joined in the sport. The thought was fleeting. His heart was racing and his muscles tensed as he lunged forward with the crowd. Soon he was directly behind the bulls. The bulls were slipping on the cobble stoned streets and so they could not run as fast as they might otherwise. This gave opportunity to run along with them and to hit them with the sticks.
Bromley now realized that they had passed All Saints' church and were almost to High Street. The stones on High Street were more even and the bulls were able to put distance between themselves and the few runners that were in the front of the group with Bromley. He decided that he would take a shortcut via Maiden Lane and catch the bulls again on Saint Mary's street. Bromley had just passed Maiden Lane and so he pulled up short and spun around to go back to the lane. Bromley didn't realize it, but he had lost track of one bull and the bull was now behind him. As Bromley spun around toward Maiden Lane, he found that he was only steps away from a charging bull. The bull's lowered head