this was the voice of human beings with the passions of beasts. The
noise dwindled as the mob poured through an alley, and then broke out
again, loud and daunting, as it emerged. It was near at hand; now
there was added to its voice the drum of its footsteps on cobble-
paved streets, and suddenly, brief and agonizing, a wild outcry of
shrieks as some wretched creature was found out of hiding and the
bludgeons beat it out of human semblance. All round Truda there was a
stir among the Jews; a child wrought beyond endurance whimpered and
was gagged under an apron; the howl of the mob startled her ears as
it poured along the street outside the great gate.

Then came confusion, a chaos of voices, of ringing blows upon the
gate, screams and moans, the shrill sound of the glee that goes with
open murder, and a sudden light that shot up against the sky from a
house on fire. The crowd of Jews in the courtyard thinned as some
slipped swiftly into the dark doorways to be ready for flight,
startled by a tattoo of blows on the gate that broke out abruptly.
Truda stood fast where she was, listening with a kind of detachment.
The blows on the gate increased; she could even hear, among the other
sounds, the heavy breathing of those who strove to break a way in.
Men came running to aid them, and the stout gate bent under their
efforts. It was fastened within by an iron bar lying in sockets
across it; with an interest that was almost idle she saw how these
sockets, one by one, were yielding and let the bar go loose. One
broke off with a sharp crack, and sent the rest of the Jews racing to
the dark doorways. Truda loosened her cloak and let it fall about her
feet, and stood up alone, vivid in the dancing light of the burning
house, in saffron and white. She moved deliberate hands over her hair
and patted a loose strand into its place. Another rending crash; she
set her hand on her hip and stood still. The door yielded and sprang