were driven with a tremendous impetus against the gates. As
they crashed against the wood, and half splintered the stout
entrances, a succession of shots rang out from the roofs, and I saw
the French marauders sliding rapidly down and fall out of sight into
the compound. The defence had been broken down--at least, at this
point. It seemed quite over.

It was the work of a moment to hack the gates aside, and through the
choking fumes and charred remains the whole infuriated crowd now
poured. The little blaze, having met with much brick and stone, was
smouldering out, and so long as it was not kindled anew there was no
danger of the fire spreading.

Like a rush of muddy waters, the sweating, brown-backed men, now mad
with a lust for pillage, tore through the first courtyard. I was born
along with them perforce like a piece of flotsam on a raging
flood-tide; there was no turning back. Besides, such things do not
happen every day....

The Frenchmen and their companions had already disappeared inside, and
on the ground lay two of the pawn-shop men, dead or dying, swimming
silently in their own blood. Beyond this there was a first hall, empty
and devoid of furniture, excepting for immensely long wooden counters;
and as I jumped through to the warehouses beyond, I saw dimly in the
darkened room those dozens of city rapscallions whom we had unleashed
hurl themselves on to the counters and literally tear them to pieces.
They knew! Thousands of strings of cash were laid bare by this action,
and with the quickness of lightning hundreds of furious hands tore and
snatched, while hot voices smote the air in snarls and gasps. They
wanted this money--would lose their lives for it. In an instant the
pawn-shop hall had been turned into a sulphurous saturnalia horrid to
witness. That gave you a grim idea of mob violence. I rushed to escape
it....

In the warehouses beyond I found the Frenchmen and the first Cossack,
who had directed the carrying of the place by assault, breaking open
with rude jests chests and boxes, and flinging to the ground the
contents of countless shelves. They cared nothing for the things they
found; they were hunting for treasure. With curses as their
disappointment deepened, and always hurling more and more shelves and
cupboards to the ground, they soon reduced room after room to a
confusion such as I have never before witnessed. Rich silks and costly
furs, boxes of trinkets, embroideries, women's head-dresse