"_Timeo danaos_," etc. At the very moment when the officer's head was
most in peril, while he guarded it with the staff held horizontally in
both hands separated widely for the critical juncture, it ominously
cracked at the reception of a vigorous blow--it parted as though a steel
blade had severed it, and the unresisted cane came down on his skull
with crushing force.

Out of the two cavities which the broken staff now presented, rattled
several gold coins. At the sight, the old hag scrambled toward where the
major had fallen senseless. The Jew, after picking up the broken pieces
of wood, would have lingered to recover those of the precious metal
though at cost of a scuffle with Baboushka. But his daughter rebuked him
in their language with an indignant tone, which brought him to his
senses in an instant. She seized him by the arm, and hurried him away at
last.

After a brief survey of the defeated man, wavering between the fear
that he had killed him and the prompting to see to his hurts, if the
case were not fatal, the student took to flight in the direction the
beautiful girl had chosen. He well knew that this was a grave matter,
and that he trod on burning ground. At twenty paces farther, he
remembered his cloak, but on the bridge were now clustered several
shadows vying with Baboushka in picking up the coin before raising the
unfortunate Von Sendlingen.

Not a light had appeared at the windows of the houses, not a window had
opened for a night-capped head to be thurst forth, not a voice had
echoed the Jewess's call for the watch. It was not to be doubted that
Footbridge street had allowed more murderous outrages to occur without
anyone running the risk of catching a cold or a slash of a sabre.