oman was still suspended outside the window. The
fire raged with increased violence over her head; another moment, and
she would have fallen into the street.

"The hole was opened. We saw the corporal pull off his shoulder-belt and
lower himself inside: the other firemen, who had arrived, followed.

"At that instant a very lofty Porta ladder, which had just arrived, was
placed against the entablature of the house, in front of the windows
whence issued flames, and howls, as of maniacs. But it seemed as though
they were too late.

"'No one can be saved now!' they shouted. 'The firemen are burning! The
end has come! They are dead!'

"All at once the black form of the corporal made its appearance at the
window with the balcony, lighted up by the flames overhead. The woman
clasped him round the neck; he caught her round the body with both
arms, drew her up, and laid her down inside the room.

"The crowd set up a shout a thousand voices strong, which rose above the
roar of the conflagration.

"But the others? And how were they to get down? The ladder which leaned
against the roof on the front of another window was at a good distance
from them. How could they get hold of it?

"While the people were saying this to themselves, one of the firemen
stepped out of the window, set his right foot on the window-sill and his
left on the ladder, and standing thus upright in the air, he grasped the
lodgers, one after the other, as the other men handed them to him from
within, passed them on to a comrade, who had climbed up from the street,
and who, after securing a firm grasp for them on the rungs, sent them
down, one after the other, with the assistance of more firemen.

"First came the woman of the balcony, then a baby, then another woman,
then an old man. All were saved. After the old man, the fireman who had
remained inside descended. The last to come down was the corporal who
had been the first to hasten up. The crowd received them all with a
burst of applause; but when the last made his appearance, the vanguard
of the rescuers, the one who had faced the abyss in advance of the rest,
the one who would have perished had it been fated that one should
perish, the crowd saluted him like a conqueror, shouting and stretching
out their arms, with an affectionate impulse of admiration and of
gratitude, and in a few minutes his obscure name--Giuseppe Robbino--rang
from a thousand throats.

"Have you understood? That is courage--the