stared at each other
in silence, and Robin's knees shook, and his hair bristled, with a
mixture of pity and terror. Soon, however, a bewildering excitement
began to seize upon his mind; the preceding adventures of the night,
the unexpected appearance of the crowd, the torches, the confused din
and the hush that followed, the spectre of his kinsman reviled by that
great multitude,--all this, and, more than all, a perception of
tremendous ridicule in the whole scene, affected him with a sort of
mental inebriety. At that moment a voice of sluggish merriment saluted
Robin's ears; he turned instinctively, and just behind the corner of
the church stood the lantern-bearer, rubbing his eyes, and drowsily
enjoying the lad's amazement. Then he heard a peal of laughter like the
ringing of silvery bells; a woman twitched his arm, a saucy eye met
his, and he saw the lady of the scarlet petticoat. A sharp, dry
cachinnation appealed to his memory, and, standing on tiptoe in the
crowd, with his white apron over his head, he beheld the courteous
little innkeeper. And lastly, there sailed over the heads of the
multitude a great, broad laugh, broken in the midst by two sepulchral
hems; thus, "Haw, haw, haw,--hem, hem,--haw, haw, haw, haw!"

The sound proceeded from the balcony of the opposite edifice, and
thither Robin turned his eyes. In front of the Gothic window stood the
old citizen, wrapped in a wide gown, his gray periwig exchanged for a
nightcap, which was thrust back from his forehead, and his silk
stockings hanging about his legs. He supported himself on his polished
cane in a fit of convulsive merriment, which manifested itself on his
solemn old features like a funny inscription on a tombstone. Then Robin
seemed to hear the voices of the barbers, of the guests of the inn, and
of all who had made sport of him that night. The contagion was
spreading among the multitude, when all at once, it seized upon Robin,
and he sent forth a shout of laughter that echoed through the
street,--every man shook his sides, every man emptied his lungs, but
Robin's shout was the loudest there. The cloud-spirits peeped from
their silvery islands, as the congregated mirth went roaring up the
sky! The Man in the Moon heard the far bellow. "Oho," quoth he, "the
old earth is frolicsome to-night!"

When there was a momentary calm in that tempestuous sea of sound, the
leader gave the sign, the procession resumed its march. On they went,
like fiends that