But another of the six, braver and more daring, climbed up and
retorted with violence. Then the howls and invectives were redoubled,
"They have fooled you!" the people shouted. "Idiots that you are! They
have put him in prison! In prison!" The cry spread; those at a distance
heard it, who had heard nothing else, and those who could hear neither
the cry nor anything else felt the dark, magnetic waves of wrath pierce
their breasts. Many howled "_Abbasso_! Down with him!" without knowing
whose fall they desired. And here are the _carabinieri's_ big hats
again, and the policemen. In vain the six protest, shouting themselves
hoarse; the yells of "Down with him!" and "Death to him!" drown their
voices. A _delegato_ orders the bugler to sound the "disperse." At the
third blast there is a general stampede. The deputation, led by the
tobacconist, flees also; but each member manages to drag after him in
his flight one or other of the less violent citizens, promising further
information, impossible to give in the open street, when they shall have
reached a fitting place.
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