of the public peace. Luckily for Conrad, for passion
had fairly blinded Maso to the consequences of his fury, the halberdiers
soon forced their way into the centre of the living mass, and they
succeeded in seasonably rescuing him from the deadly gripe of his
assailant. Il Maledetto trembled with the reaction of this hot sally, the
moment his gripe was forcibly released, and he would have disappeared as
soon as possible, had it been the pleasure of those into whose hands he
had fallen to permit so politic a step. But now commenced the war of
words, and the clamor of voices, which usually succeed, as well as
precede, all contests of a popular nature. The officer in charge of this
portion of the square questioned; twenty answered in a breath, not only
drowning each other's voices, but effectually contradicting all that was
said in the way of explanation. One maintained that Conrad had not been
content with attacking Maso's dog, but that he had followed up the blow by
offering a personal indignity to the master himself; this was the publican
in whose house the mariner had taken up his abode, and in which he had
been sufficiently liberal in his expenditure fairly to entitle him to the
hospitable support of its landlord. Another professed his readiness to
swear that the dog was the property of the pilgrim, being accustomed to
carry his wallet, and that Maso, owing to an ancient grudge against both
master and beast, had hurled the stone which sent the animal away howling,
and had resented a mild remonstrance of its owner in the extraordinary
manner that all had seen. This witness was the Neapolitan juggler, Pippo,
who had much attached himself to the person of Conrad since the adventure
of the bark, and who was both ready and willing to affirm anything in
behalf of a friend who had so evident need of his testimony, if it were
only on the score of boon-companionship. A third declared that the dog
belonged truly to the Italian, that the stone had been really hurled by
one who stood near the pilgrim, who had been wrongfully accused of the
offence by Maso; that the latter had made his attack under a false
impression, and richly merited punishment for the unceremonious manner in
which he had stopped Conrad's breath. This witness was perfectly honest,
but of a vulgar and credulous mind. He attributed the original offence to
one near that happened to have a bad name, and who was very liable to
father every sin that, by possibility, cou