Here and there in the midst of the surging crowd might be distinguished
sundry honest citizens still in plain clothes indeed, but carrying along
with them bayonetted muskets, thereby inspiring the rabble with peculiar
valour, the common people always imagining in such cases that the
national guard with its bayonets is quite equal to the military.

"Halt!" a voice rung out in front of the crowding mass.

At the sound of that voice the hubbub for an instant grew still. The mob
stopped short.

"Load your muskets!"

The soldiers, like a single, many-handed machine, instantly brought down
their weapons to their sides with a clash, and the clatter of the
loading-sticks in the barrels of the muskets was distinctly audible.
Then there was another clatter, and every musket was instantly pointed.

The rioters began to look at one another, and those in front envied the
position of those in the rear, who could freely use their lungs without
the slightest risk.

And now the General rode along in front of the noisy mob and shouted to
them in a hard, stern voice:

"What do you want? What is the matter with you? Why are you obstructing
the street?"

The fellows kept elbowing each other forward, and, at last, one of them
exclaimed:

"Here is Master Matthias! Let Master Matthias speak!"

"Bravo, Master Matthias!"

And suddenly from the midst of the mob arose the form of a citizen in a
leather apron, with a shako on his head, and a musket with a bayonet
attached thereto in his hand. He was passed along over the heads of the
crowd, from shoulder to shoulder, and finally planted on his feet right
in front of the General. This was Master Matthias.

Even if his hands, the knuckles whereof were unwashably embalmed with
pitch, had not of themselves betrayed the fact, the awl hanging beside
his leather apron, and evidently left there by accident, would have
declared that the individual in question belonged to that estimable
section of the community whose business in life it is to provide
humanity with corns. His moustache was twisted with seven-and-seventy
ringlets, and he had the habit every time he opened his mouth of
violently shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders by way of making
his words the more emphatic.

Master Matthias was a famous orator of the market-place, a toast-master
of the city guilds, a finished wedding-feast chairman, and a recognised
champion swine-slayer, he was consequently renowned throughout th