James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest, The String of Pearls — Chapter 8
“ They were completely paralysed for a moment; indeed, they began to look upon it something between a joke and a serious matter, and either would have been taken just as they might be termed. 'Get the pearls!' shouted the man who had first stopped him; 'seize the spy! seize him - secure him - rush at him! You are men enough to hold one man!' Sweeney Todd saw matters were growing serious, and he plied his mop most vigorously upon those who were ascending, but they had become somewhat used to the mop, and it had lost much of its novelty, and was by no means a dangerous weapon. ”
