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The unfortunate superintendent was at this moment painfully

digesting his miserable dinner, whilst awaiting anxiously the

termination of this hurricane; he was, however, far from

suspecting that its greatest fury was to be spent on himself.

Some benevolent persons hastened forward to inform him of his

urgent peril. The servants, drawn to the door by the uproar,

beheld, in affright, the dense mass advancing. While they

listened to the friendly notice, the vanguard appeared; one

hastily informed his master; and while he, for a moment,

deliberated upon flight, another came to say there was no longer

time for it; in hurry and confusion they closed and barricadoed

the windows and the doors. The howling without increased; each

corner of the house resounded with it; and in the midst of the

vast and mingled noise was heard, fearfully and distinctly, the

blows of stones upon the door. "The tyrant! the tyrant! the

causer of famine! we must have him, living or dead!"