rts beat faster,
but without violence. Suddenly there was a shock, a thrill, and they
looked round with startled gaze, to see whence it came, and what was
happening. And they saw a woman forcing her way frantically through the
crowd, her hands working, her lips moving as in fever, her eyes flashing
fire, and her voice shaking as she cried: "Come on and see me settle
them! First I shall thrash _him_, and then I shall go for _her_! We must
make a cinder-heap of them; it's all we can do."

She was a tall, bony woman, with broad shoulders, who had earned for
herself the nickname Cossack, by having, with her own hands, beaten off
three peasants who wanted to strangle her husband, he, they declared,
having sold them by false weight--it was the first time he had ever
tried to be of use to her.

"But don't shout so, Breindel!" begged a woman's voice.

"What do you mean by 'don't shout'! Am I going to hold my tongue? Never
you mind, I shall take no water into my mouth. I'll teach them, the
apostates, to desecrate the whole town!"

"But don't shout so!" beg several more.

Breindel takes no notice. She clenches her right fist, and, fighting the
air with it, she vociferates louder than ever:

"What has happened, women? What are you frightened of? Look at them, if
they are not all a little afraid! That's what brings trouble. Don't let
us be frightened, and we shall spare ourselves in the future. We shall
not be in terror that to-morrow or the day after (they had best not live
to hear of it, sweet Father in Heaven!) another of us should have this
come upon her!"

Breindel's last words made a great impression. The women started as
though someone had poured cold water over them without warning. A few
even began to come forward in support of Breindel's proposal. Soreh Leoh
said: She advised going, but only to him, the bridegroom, and telling
him not to give people occasion to laugh, and not to cause distress to
her parents, and to agree to the wedding's taking place to-day or
to-morrow, before anything happened, and to keep quiet.

"I say, he shall not live to see it; he shall not be counted worthy to
have us come begging favors of him!" cried an angry voice.

But hereupon rose that of a young woman from somewhere in the crowd, and
all the others began to look round, and no one knew who it was speaking.
At first the young voice shook, then it grew firmer and firmer, so that
one could hear clearly and distinctly what was said: