weapons, they were checked by the necessity for keeping a secure hold on
their prisoners, and they were now hurrying along in the hope of finding
shelter in a hostelry.

"French dogs!"

"Bullock-feet!"

"Snatch their pikes from them!"

"Cut the cords and make them run for their prisoners. They'll run as
fast as geese--don't you see they're web-footed?" These were the cries
which the soldiers vaguely understood to be jeers, and probably threats.
But every one seemed disposed to give invitations of this spirited kind
rather than to act upon them.

"Santiddio! here's a sight!" said the dyer, as soon as he had divined
the meaning of the advancing tumult, "and the fools do nothing but hoot.
Come along!" he added, snatching his axe from his belt, and running to
join the crowd, followed by the butcher and all the rest of his
companions, except Goro, who hastily retreated up a narrow passage.

The sight of the dyer, running forward with blood-red arms and axe
uplifted, and with his cluster of rough companions behind him, had a
stimulating effect on the crowd. Not that he did anything else than
pass beyond the soldiers and thrust himself well among his
fellow-citizens, flourishing his axe; but he served as a stirring symbol
of street-fighting, like the waving of a well-known gonfalon. And the
first sign that fire was ready to burst out was something as rapid as a
little leaping tongue of flame: it was an act of the conjuror's impish
lad Lollo, who was dancing and jeering in front of the ingenuous boys
that made the majority of the crowd. Lollo had no great compassion for
the prisoners, but being conscious of an excellent knife which was his
unfailing companion, it had seemed to him from the first that to jump
forward, cut a rope, and leap back again before the soldier who held it
could use his weapon, would be an amusing and dexterous piece of
mischief. And now, when the people began to hoot and jostle more
vigorously, Lollo felt that his moment was come--he was close to the
eldest prisoner: in an instant he had cut the cord.

"Run, old one!" he piped in the prisoner's ear, as soon as the cord was
in two; and himself set the example of running as if he were helped
along with wings, like a scared fowl.

The prisoner's sensations were not too slow for him to seize the
opportunity: the idea of escape had been continually present with him,
and he had gathered fresh hope from the temper of the crowd. He ran at
once;