ously marred with jagged purple weals, from
which the blood still oozed, trickling down and dripping from the tips
of the fingers,--those beautiful ringless fingers that I knew and loved
so well.

I had no further thought of fighting now; my brain and heart were numb,
so I just dropped my weapon and fell in behind the horse, following
close on its heels. Others did the same, the whole section of the crowd
on this side the square moving after us, in what, compared with the
chaos of a few minutes back, was an orderly retreat.

Well it was for some of them that they did so, for we had scarcely
gained the street when the rattling boom of artillery sounded in the
rear; followed by a renewed babel of shrieks and yells. The guns had
been brought up and the work of summarily clearing the square had
begun. But before the panic-stricken mob overtook us, flying
helter-skelter before the new terror, Loris had urged his horse forward,
or it quickened its pace of its own accord as the throng in front
thinned and gave way more easily. I think I tried instinctively to keep
up with it, but the crowd closed round me, the rush of fugitives from
the rear overtook, overwhelmed us, and I was carried along with it.

I suppose I must have kept my footing, otherwise I should have been
trampled down, as were so many others on that awful day. But where I
went and what I did during the hours that followed I don't know, and I
never shall. I lost all sense of time and place; though I've a hazy
recollection of stumbling on alone, through dark streets, sodden with
the rain that was now falling in a persistent, icy drizzle. Some of the
streets were silent and deserted; in others I paused idly to watch
parties of sullen soldiers and police, grumbling and swearing over their
gruesome task of collecting the dead bodies, and tossing them into
carts; and again I stared into brilliantly lighted cafes and listened to
the boisterous merriment of those within. Were they celebrating an
imaginary victory, or acting on the principle, "Let us eat, drink, and
be merry, for to-morrow--perchance to-night--we die?"

Death brooded over the city that night; I felt His presence
everywhere,--in the streets that were silent as the grave itself; in
those whence the dead were being removed; most of all where men and
women laughed and sang and defied Him! But I felt the dread Presence in
a curious detached fashion. Death was my enemy indeed, an enemy who
would not strike,