to time he smote his fellows nearest, and was himself also scourged. With dolorous cries, lamentations, contortions, and wailings the flagellants approached Gran. By aside path Brother Primus withdrew unnoticed. The strange company settled on the edge of the town at the same caravanserai whither Solomon and his friends had been conducted on their first arrival. During all that night excited multitudes poured towards Gran from every quarter. At stated intervals the flagellants screamed and smote each other. Orators with streaming hair stood on platforms of any kind and wildly denounced the wrath of God against his enemies. Some worked themselves into convulsions, and were pointed to as possessed with demons.
“The wrath of God; the wrath of God,” men screamed, “is about to fall.”
The contagion spread. The wild multitude became frenzied. At this favorable moment Brother Secundus ascended a platform, and holding up a large crucifix, denounced the sin of heresy as the object of the deserved vengeance of the Almighty. “The heretics, the heretics!” shouted the multitude. “Death to the heretics!”
During this scene another party, flagellants and peasants, started through the town, and thus the excitement spread. Solomon retired and observed. The townsmen assembled and stood on their defense. The great body of the flagellants at length marched through the town, and joined the former body in the further suburb. Shouts and screamslong resounded.
