Pagina 375 di 1118

While these various interests were contending for superiority in

the mob, before the house of the vicar, the appearance of Antonio

Ferrer gave instantly a great advantage to the humane, who were

manifestly yielding to the greater strength of the ferocious and

blood-thirsty. The man himself was acceptable to the multitude,

from his having previously favoured their cause, and from his

heroic resistance to any arguments against it. Those already

favourably inclined towards him were now much more affected by

the courageous confidence of an old man, who, without guards or

retinue, came thus to confront an angry and stormy multitude.