nife from his
grasp and hanged him by the hands to the hooks in his wall, among the
flayed carcases, where he twitched his legs and jerked his head and
cursed and swore till evening.

Near the churchyard, a crowd had assembled outside a long green
farm-house. The farmer stood on his threshold weeping bitter tears; as
he was very fat, with a face made for smiling, the hearts of the
soldiers softened in some measure as they sat in the sun with their
backs to the wall, listening to him and patting his dog the while. But
the one who was dragging the child away by the hand made gestures as
though to say:

"You may save your tears! It is not my fault!"

A peasant who was being hotly pursued sprang into a boat moored to the
stone bridge and pushed across the pond with his wife and children.
The soldiers, not daring to venture on the ice, strode angrily through
the reeds. They climbed into the willows on the bank, trying to reach
them with their spears; and, when they failed, continued for a long
time to threaten the family, where they all sat cowering in the middle
of the water.

Meanwhile, the orchard was still full of people, for it was there that
most of the children were slain, in front of the man with the white
beard who directed the massacre. The little boys and girls who were
big enough to walk alone also collected there and, munching their
bread-and-butter, stood looking on curiously to see the others die or
gathered round the village idiot, who lay upon the grass playing a
whistle.

Then suddenly a movement ran through the length of the village. The
peasants were turning their steps toward the castle, standing on a
high mound of yellow earth at the end of the street. They had caught
sight of the lord of the village leaning on the battlements of his
tower, watching the massacre. And the men, women and old folk
stretched out their arms to him where he sat in his cloak of purple
velvet and cap of gold and entreated him as though he were a king in
heaven. But he threw up his arms and shrugged his shoulders, to show
his helplessness; and, when they implored him in ever-increasing
anguish and knelt bareheaded in the snow, uttering loud cries, he
turned back slowly into the tower; and in the hearts of the peasants
all hope died.

When all the children were killed, the tired soldiers wiped their
swords on the grass and supped under the pear-trees. Then the
foot-soldiers mounted behind the others and they all rode out