ng for
life, fluctuating and rushing, and wailing in maddening excitement like
a raging ocean. Oh! all this wrought a direful sublimity, with those
cries of agony and that riot of desperation. And all this while the wolf
pursued its furious career, amid the mortal violence of a people thrown
into horrible disorder, pursued its way with savage howls, glaring eyes,
and foaming mouth, the only living being there that was infuriate and
not alarmed, battling for escape, and yet unhurt.

As a whirlpool suddenly assails the gallant ship, makes her agitate and
rock fearfully for a few moments and then swallows her up altogether, so
was the scaffold in the midst of the square shaken to its very basis for
a little space, and then hurled down, disappearing altogether amidst the
living vortex.

In the balconies and at the windows overlooking the square, the awful
excitement spread like wild-fire, and a real panic prevailed among those
who were at least beyond the reach of danger. But horror paralyzed the
power of sober reflection, and the hideous spectacle of volumes of human
beings battling, and roaring, and rushing, and yelling in terrific
frenzy, produced a kindred effect, and spread the wild delirium among
the spectators at those balconies and those windows. At length, in the
square below, the crowds began to pour forth from the gates, for the
Wehr-Wolf had by this time cleared himself a passage and escaped from
the midst of that living ocean so fearfully agitated by the storms of
fear. But even when the means of egress were thus obtained, the most
frightful disorder prevailed, the people rolling in heaps upon heaps,
while infuriate and agile men ran on the tops of the compact masses, and
leapt in their delirium, as with barbarous intent.

On--on sped the Wehr-Wolf, dashing like a whirlwind through the streets
leading to the open country, the white flakes of foam flying from his
mouth like spray from the prow of a vessel, and every fiber of his frame
vibrating as if in agony. And oh! what dismay--what terror did that
monster spread in the thoroughfares through which he passed; how wildly,
how madly flew the men and women from his path; how piteously screamed
the children at the house-doors in the poor neighborhoods! But, as if
sated with the destruction already wrought in the great square of the
palace, the wolf dealt death no more in the precincts of the city; as if
lashed on by invisible demons, his aim, or his instinct, wa