ches at the least. Then, my friends, it
was horrible to behold--the deep silence of a minute before was succeeded
by tumult, cries, screams, and ravings. That mass of human beings heaped
up in the galleries, one above another, were some clutching the walls,
the pillars, the banisters; others were fighting with fury, and even
biting, to get away faster, and from the midst of this frightful
confusion arose the plaintive voices of the suffering women. I shudder at
the remembrance. Oh, may I never see such a sight as this again!

But, most terrible circumstance of all, the bear was chained close by the
staircase that leads up to the galleries!

If I were to live a thousand years never should I forget the horror of
Friar Johannes, who had cleared a way for himself with his long staff,
and was placing his foot on the last step when he discovered, just before
the bottom of the staircase, Beppo seated calmly on his tail, his chain
tightened, his eye expressive of joy, ready to snap him up first!

None can tell the muscular power which Maitre Johannes was obliged to put
forth to stem the force that was driving him in from behind. Convulsively
grasping the banister with both hands, his broad shoulders formed a
mighty buttress against the pressing flood. Like Atlas, I do believe he
would have borne the earth upon his back to save his precious skin.

In the midst of this confusion and tumult, and when there seemed no
way to avert the threatening catastrophe, suddenly the door of the
cattle-shed opened violently, and the redoubtable Horni, Maitre
Sebaldus's magnificent bull, rushed into the arena, his massive dewlap
shaking loosely like an apron, his tail extended straight, his mouth and
nostrils white with fleecy foam.

It was an inspiration of the master's. He had resolved to risk his bull
to save human life. At the same moment the fat, round, rosy face of our
landlord appeared through the skylight of the stable, crying to the crowd
not to be alarmed, for that he would open the inner door which abuts into
the old synagogue, and let out the crowd by the Jews' street, which was
done in two or three minutes, to the immense relief and comfort of the
public.

But now listen to the end of my story.

Scarcely had the bear caught sight of the bull when he made an ugly rush
upon this new adversary with so terrible a shock that the chain burst.
The bull retired, facing his foe, to a corner of the court near the
pigeon-cote, and there