or in front of the Curia--the senatehouse--an
immense gathering of people had collected. The Vekeel forced his way
through them with cruel indifference. He knew what they wanted and paid
no heed to them. The hapless crowd had for some time past met here daily,
demanding from the authorities some succor in their fearful need.
Processions and pilgrimages had had no result yesterday, so to-day they
besieged the Curia. But could the senate make the Nile rise, or stay the
pestilence, or prevent the dates dropping from the palm-trees? Could they
help, when Heaven denied its aid?

These were the questions which the authorities had already put at least
ten times to the shrieking multitude from the balcony of the town hall,
and each time the crowd had yelled in reply: "Yes--yes. You must!--it is
your duty; you take the taxes, and you are put there to take care of us!"

Even yesterday the distracted creatures had been wholly unmanageable and
had thrown stones at the building: to-day, after the fearful
conflagration and the death of their bishop, they had assembled in vast
numbers, more furious and more desperate than ever. The senators sat
trembling on their antique seats of gilt ivory, the relics of departed
splendor imitated from those of the Roman senators, looking at each other
and shrugging their shoulders while they listened to a letter which had
just reached them from the hadi. This document required them, in
conformity with Obada's determination, to make known to the populace, by
public proclamation and declaration, that any citizen whose house had
been destroyed by the fire of the past night would be granted ground and
building materials without payment, at Fostat across the Nile, where he
might found a new home provided he would settle there and embrace Islam.

This degrading offer must be announced: no discussion or recalcitrancy
could help that.

And what could they, for their part, do for the complaining crowd?

The plague was snatching them away; the vegetables, which constituted
half their food at this season, were dried up; the river, their palatable
and refreshing drink, was poisoned; the dates, their chief luxury,
ripened only to be rejected with loathing. Then there was the comet in
the sky, no hope of a harvest--even of a single ear, for months to come.
The bishop dead, all confidence lost in the intercessions of the Church,
God's mercy extinct as it would seem, withdrawn from the land under
infidel rule!