It's really not so long. I mean, it's slightly long, but it is describing just one action.

"A throng of bearded men, in sad-coloured garments and grey steeple-crowned hats, inter-mixed with women, some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes."

Maybe because you were smaller, the sentence appeared larger. That's probably it.