forward, but few women were among them, and there was a degree of
excitement and animation prevailing that was in general only displayed
when returning in the evening. Anton halted at the first public house on
the way, and told the driver to remain there with the horses.

He himself walked rapidly on through the gate. The town was so crowded
that the carts of grain could hardly make their way along. When Anton
reached the market-place he was struck with the scene before him. On all
sides heated faces, eager gestures, not a few in hunting costume, and a
strange cockade on numerous caps. The crowd was densest before the
wine-merchant's store; there the people trode on one another, staring up
at the windows, from whence hung gayly-colored flags, the Polish colors
above the rest. While Anton was looking with disquietude at the front of
the house, the door was opened, and Herr von Tarow came out upon the
stone steps, accompanied by a stranger with a scarf bound round him, in
whom Anton recognized the same Pole who had once threatened him with a
court-martial, and who had been inquiring for the steward a few months
ago. A young man sprang out of the crowd on to the lowest step, saying
something in Polish, and waving his hat. A loud shout rose in return,
and then came a profound silence, during which Von Tarow spoke a few
words, the import of which Anton could not catch, owing to the noise of
carts and the pushing of the crowd. Next, the gentleman with the scarf
made a long oration, during which he was often interrupted by loud
applause. At the end of it, a deafening tumult arose. The house door was
thrown wide open, and the crowd swayed to and fro like the waves of the
sea, some rushing off in another direction, and others running into the
house, whence they hurried back with cockades on their caps and scythes
in their hands. The number of the armed went on rapidly increasing, and
small detachments of scythe-bearers, headed by men with guns, proceeded
to invest the market-place.

Hearing the word of command given behind him, Anton turned, and saw a
few men mounted and armed, who were ordering all the wagons to be
removed from the market-place. The noise and confusion increased, the
peasants dragging off their horses in all haste, the traders flying into
the houses with their stores, the shops being gradually closed. The
market-place soon presented an ominous appearance. Anton was now swept
off by the crowd to its opposite sid