ens. Here was one rolling up silver
spoons, cups, anything she could get, in a shawl; there another filling a
bag with jewellery, and a silver ladle sticking out of her bosom or back;
anon a couple of Venuses fighting for a splendid garment, while a superb
Hebe ravished a golden goblet, and an enchanting Vesta, if not a vestal,
appropriated most appropriately a silver lamp. Some pulled down the
curtains, others rolled up the costly Venetian rugs; they drank wine when
they were thirsty, and quarrelled and laughed and shrieked, as a parcel
of wild servant-girls in a mad frolic might be expected to do. It was a
fine sight--'one worthy of a great artist or De Goncourt,' notes Flaxius.

"When lo! all at once there was an awful and simultaneous shriek as the
door opened, and the _Domine_--I mean the headmaster, wizard, or
sultan--entered, gazing like an astonished demon on the scene before his
eyes. In a voice of thunder he asked the meaning of the scene, when he
found himself confronted by the intruding Signore, before whom his heart
run away like water when he recognised in him a man having very great
authority, with the police at his back.

"Now, servant-maids, however pretty they may be, are mostly _contadine_
with powerful muscles and mighty arms, and with one accord they rushed on
their late master, and soon overpowered him. Then he was securely bound
with silken curtain ropes, and the new Signore, taking his place at a
great table, bade all the damsels range themselves at the sides in solemn
council, for the offender was now to be tried, condemned, and punished
too, should he be found guilty.

"The trial was indeed one of peculiar interest, and the testimony adduced
would have made the fortune of a French novelist, but space (if nothing
else) prohibits my giving it. Suffice it to say that the wizard was
found guilty of taking unto himself an undue share of pretty
hand-maidens, a great sin considering the number of gallant soldiers and
other bachelors who were thereby defrauded of their dues. But as he had
neither murdered nor stolen, it was decided to let him go and carry on
his games in some less Christian town, on condition that he would divide
what money he had in the house among the poor girls whom he had so
cruelly cajoled.

"And as this last sentence was plaintively pronounced, there was a deep
and beautiful sigh uttered by all the victims, followed by three cheers.
The master's strong-box was at once h