waggon was half-way across the opening of the street, made
desperate efforts to make his beast advance and clear the way; but
the frightened animal only backed farther up. A moment later the
runaway charged down past the tail of the lumbering vehicle. The
horse himself just cleared the projecting timbers of the cart, but
the cab he was furiously dragging caught upon them while going at
full speed and was shivered to pieces, throwing the horse heavily
upon the stones, so that he slid along several feet on his head
and knees with the fragments of the broken shafts and the wreck of
the harness about him. The first man to spring from the crowd and
seize the beast's head was Anastase. He did not see that the same
instant a large private carriage, drawn by a pair of powerful
horses, emerged quickly from the Vicolo dei Soldati, the third of
the streets which meet the Via di Tordinona at the Orso. The
driver, who owing to the darkness had not seen the disaster which
had just taken place, did his best to stop in time; but before the
heavy equipage could be brought to a stand Anastase had been
thrown to the ground, between the hoofs of the struggling cab-
horse and the feet of the startled pair of bays. The crowd closed
in as near as was safe, while the confusion and the shouts of the
people and the carters increased every minute.

The coachman of the private carriage threw the reins to the
footman and sprang down to go to the horses' heads.

"You have run over a Zouave!" some one shouted from the crowd.

"Meno male! Thank goodness it was not one of us!" exclaimed
another voice.