inger.

The shoemaker in tipsy silence was the only one who followed him.

"My children's bread!" he murmured in thickened speech. "They wish to
rob them! They wish to keep them poor!"

Mariano heard a metallic clatter, and saw the shoemaker raise his hand
armed with the bunch of keys which had fallen on the marble steps of
the railing, then he heard a strangely sonorous sound, as if something
hollow was being struck.

Gabriel gave one scream, and fell forwards on the ground; the
shoemaker continued striking his head.

"Do not give him any more--stop!"

These were the last words Gabriel heard confusedly, as he lay
stretched at the entrance of the choir; a warm and sticky liquid ran
over his eyes; afterwards--silence, darkness and--nothing!

His last thought was to tell himself he was dying--that probably he
was already dead, and that only the last vital struggle remained to
him, the last struggle of a life vanishing for ever.

Still he came back to life. He opened his eyes with difficulty and saw
the sun coming through a barred window, white walls, and a dirty and
darned cotton counterpane. After great wandering and stumbling, he
could collect his thoughts sufficiently to' form one idea: they had
placed the Cathedral on his temples--the huge church was hanging over
his head crushing him. What terrible pain! He could not move; he
seemed fastened by his head. His ears were buzzing, his tongue seemed
paralysed. His eyes could see feebly, as though the light were muddy
and a reddish haze enveloped all things.

He thought that a face with whiskers, surmounted by the hat of a civil
guard, bent over him, looking into his eyes. He moved his lips, but
no one heard a sound. No doubt it was the nightmare of his old
persecutions returning again.

They looked at him, seeing that he opened his eyes. A gentleman
dressed in black advanced towards his bed, followed by others who
carried papers under their arms. He guessed they were speaking to him
by the movement of their lips, but he could hear nothing. Was he in
another world? Were all his beliefs false, and after death did another
life exist the same as the one he had left?

He fell again into darkness and unconsciousness. A long time passed--a
very long time. Again he opened his eyes, but now the haze was denser,
it was not red but black.

Through this veil he thought he saw his brother's face, horrified
and drawn with fear; and the cocked hats of the civil guards, th