heir arms and legs; they gnashed
their teeth like wild beasts, and inflicted wounds on their own breasts
and limbs in order to intensify their lust of blood by the sight of it.

The two men, by dint of peremptory commands and vigorous blows with the
naked sword, forced their way step by step through the crowd. But after
a lapse of ten minutes they had scarcely progressed more than a
hundred yards. The surging mob around them became even denser and more
threatening in its attitude, and Heideck saw it would be impossible to
reach the citadel.

With anxious care for the precious human lives entrusted to his
protection, he looked about for another place of safety. But the
Europeans had firmly barricaded their houses, and none of them would
have opened to admit the poor fugitives. On a sudden the wild cries
that had almost terrified the crying children to death rose to appalling
shrieks and ravings, and a mob of demons, incited by their fanatic
passions almost to frenzy, rushed from a side street straight upon
Heideck. They had somewhere on their way been joined by a large number
of other female fugitives; and the sight of these unhappy creatures made
the German officer's blood run cold in his veins.

The women, among whom were two girls yet on the borders of childhood,
had had their clothes torn from their bodies, and they were now being
hustled along under such constant ill-usage that they were bleeding from
numerous wounds.

Unable further to curb the wrath that rose within him at the sight of
this brutality, Heideck took his revolver from his belt, and with a
well-aimed shot sent one of the howling, fanatic devils to the ground.

But his action was not well-advised. Although his martial appearance had
up till then kept this cowardly crew away from acts of violence against
himself and his party, the furious rage of the mob now knew no bounds.

In the next moment the small party found itself hemmed in by a knot of
raging black devils, and Heideck was no longer in doubt that it was only
a question of bravely fighting to the death. The foremost of the more
violent of their assailants he was able to keep off by firing at them
the last five shots that remained in his revolver. The last shot snuffed
out the light of a black-bearded fellow just at the very moment when he
was attacking Edith Irwin with his brutal fists. Then Heideck threw his
revolver, useless in that he could not load it afresh, into the face
of one of the