Now, it was just when the town was alive with this strange scene that the procession which had been ordered by Ben Aboo came out from the Kasbah.At the head of it walked a soldier, staff in hand and gorgeous--notwithstanding the rain--in peaked shasheeah and crimson selham.Behind him were four black police, and on either side of the company were two criers of the street, each carrying a short staff festooned with strings of copper coin, which he rattled in the air for a bell.Between these came the victims of the Basha's order--Naomi first, barefooted, bareheaded, stripped of all but the last garment that hid her nakedness, her head held down, her face hidden, and her eyes closed--and Israel afterwards, mounted on a lean and ragged ass.A further guard of black police walked at the back of all.Thus they came down the steep arcades into the market-square, where the greater body of the townspeople had gathered together.
When the people saw them, they made for them, hastening in crowds from every side of the Feddan, from every adjacent alley, every shop, tent, and booth.And when they saw who the prisoners were they burst into loud exclamations of surprise.
"Ya Allah! Israel the Jew!" cried the Moors.
"God of Jacob, save us! Israel ben Oliel!" cried the people of the Mellah.
"What is it? What has happened? What has befallen them?" they all asked together.
"Balak!" cried the soldier in front, swinging his staff before him to force a passage through the thronging multitude."Attention!
By your leave! Away! Out of the way!"
And as they walked the criers chanted, "So shall it be done to every man who is an enemy of the Kaid, and to every woman who is a play-actor and a cheat."When the people had recovered from their consternation they began to look black into each other's face, to mutter oaths between their teeth, and to say in voices of no pity or rush, "He deserved it!""Ya Allah, but he's well served!" "Holy Saints, we knew what it would come to!" "Look at him now!" "There he is at last!""Brave end to all his great doings!" "Curse him! Curse him!"And over the muttered oaths and pitiless curses, the yelping and barking of the cruel voices of the crowd, as the procession moved along, came still the cry of the crier, "So shall it be done to every man who is an enemy of the Kaid, and to every woman who is a play-actor and a cheat."Then the mood of the multitude changed.The people began to titter, and after that to laugh openly.They wagged their heads at Israel;they derided him; they made merry over his sorry plight.Where he was now he seemed to be not so much a fallen tyrant as a silly sham and an imposture.Look at him! Look at his bony and ragged ass!