flew, smoke curled, and the mob broke and scurried down the streets,
leaving the wet, scarlet ground strewn with bodies.

And long ere the roused passions of the riffraff had assuaged
themselves by loot and outrage in the remoter streets, in the darkest
dungeon of the Nona Tower, on a piece of rotten mattress, huddled in
his dripping tinselled cloak, and bleeding from a dozen cuts, Joseph
the Dreamer lay prostrate, too exhausted from the fierce struggle with
his captors to think on the stake that awaited him.

IX

He had not long to wait. To give the crowd an execution was to crown
the Carnival. Condemned criminals were often kept till Shrove Tuesday,
and keen was the disappointment when there was only the whipping of
courtesans caught masked. The whipping of a Jew, found badgeless, was
the next best thing to the execution of a Christian, for the
flagellator was paid double (at the cost of the culprit), and did not
fail to double his zeal. But the execution of a Jew was the best of
all. And that Fra Giuseppe was a Jew there could be no doubt. The only
question was whether he was a backslider or a spy. In either case
death was his due. And he had lampooned the Pope to boot--in itself
the unpardonable sin. The unpopular Pontiff sagely spared the
others--the Jew alone was to die.

The population was early astir. In the Piazza of the People--the
centre of the Carnival--where the stake had been set up, a great
crowd fought for coigns of vantage--a joyous, good-humored tussle. The
great fountain sent its flashing silver spirts towards a blue heaven.
As the death-cart lumbered into the Piazza ribald songs from the
rabble saluted the criminal's ears, and his wild, despairing eyes
lighted on many a merry face that but a few hours before had followed
him to testify to righteousness; and, mixed with theirs, the faces of
his fellow-Jews, sinister with malicious glee. No brother friar droned
consolation to him or held the cross to his eyes--was he not a
pestilential infidel, an outcast from both worlds? The chief of the
Caporioni was present. Troops surrounded the stake lest, perchance,
the madman might have followers who would yet attempt a rescue. But
the precautions were superfluous. Not a face that showed sympathy;
those who, bewitched by the Friar, had followed his crucifix and
_pallio_ now exaggerated their jocosity lest they should be
recognized; the Jews were joyous at the heavenly vengeance which had
overtaken the re