e other
end of the Forum, which was one of the most considerable in Sicca.

A slight impulse determines the movements of an excited multitude. Off
they went to the quarter in question, where certainly there was the very
large and handsome store of a substantial dealer in grain of all sorts,
and in other produce. The shop, however, seemed on this occasion to be but
poorly furnished; for the baker was a prudent man, and feared a display of
provisions which would be an invitation to a hungry multitude. The
assailants, however, were not to be baffled; some one cried out that the
man had withdrawn his corn from the market for his own ends, and that
great stores were accumulated within. They avail themselves of the hint;
they pour in through the open front, the baker escapes as he may, his
mills and ovens are smashed, the house is ransacked; whatever is found is
seized, thrown about, wasted, eaten, as the case may be; and the mob gains
strength and appetite for fresh exploits.

However, the rioters have no definite plan of action yet. Some of them
have penetrated into the stable behind the house in search of corn. They
find the mill-ass which ground for the baker, and bring it out. It is a
beast of more than ordinary pretensions, such as you would not often see
in a mill, showing both the wealth of the owner and the flourishing
condition of his trade. The asses of Africa are finer than those in the
north; but this is fine for an African. One fellow mounts upon it, and
sets off with the world before him, like a knight-errant, seeking an
adventure, the rabble at his tail acting as squire. He begins the circuit
of the Forum, and picks up its riff-raff as he goes along--here some rascal
boys, there some drunken women, here again a number of half-brutalized
country slaves and peasants. Partly out of curiosity, partly from
idleness, from ill temper, from hope of spoil, from a vague desire to be
doing something or other, every one who has nothing to lose by the
adventure crowds around and behind him. And on the contrary, as he
advances, and the noise and commotion increase, every one who has a
position of any sort, the confidential _vernae_ of great families, farmers,
shopkeepers, men of business, officials, vanish from the scene of action
without delay.

"Africa, Africa!" is now the cry; the signal in that country, as an
ancient writer tells us, that the parties raising it have something new in
hand, and have a mind to do it.