or fifty in all. The people in possession of the house had let them in

at the gate, and they rushed in to work at the grindstone; it had

evidently been set up there for their purpose, as in a convenient

and retired spot.

But such awful workers, and such awful work!

The grindstone had a double handle, and turning at it madly

were two men, whose faces, as their long hair flapped back when

the whirlings of the grindstone brought their faces up, were more

horrible and cruel than the visages of the wildest savages in their

most barbarous disguise. False eyebrows and false moustaches

were stuck upon them, and their hideous countenances were all

bloody and sweaty, and all awry with howling, and all staring and

glaring with beastly excitement and want of sleep. As these

ruffians turned and turned, their matted locks now flung forward

over their eyes, now flung backward over their necks, some

women held wine to their mouths that they might drink; and what

with dropping blood, and what with dropping wine, and what with

the stream of sparks struck out of the stone, all their wicked

atmosphere seemed gore and fire. The eye could not detect one

creature in the group free from the smear of blood. Shouldering

one another to get next at the sharpening-stone, the men stripped

to the waist, with the stain all over their limbs and bodies; men in