The same cry had begun to ring in every part of the town where the revolt was in progress. It was an epitome of the new movement. After all, the reform chiefly desired was a full stomach instead of an empty one. Bakery windows were broken, haunches of meat were lifted from their hooks, slaughter-houses were sacked of dripping carcasses. Bread! It was piled up at the street corners! A new type of butcher presided over the meat. He gave it for the asking and used no scales. All this was pleasing and satisfactory to the Panther, who witnessed such scenes of the drama as were enacted in the neighbourhood of the Café of the Ancient Colonnade. It seemed to him that affairs had taken a distinctly lucky turn, in view of the service Tarsis had engaged him to perform. As he sipped his coffee or puffed his “Cavour” he reflected that the minds of the officials, press, and public were preoccupied by doings of great moment. Therefore, they would have scant attention to spare on the result of the small commission intrusted to his skill. In this carnival of bloodshed and pillage who would care whether the Honourable Mario Forza were alive or dead? He had no misgiving, but it was pleasant to feel that in case his work were done awkwardly the police would be too busy to meddle with his business of escape. “Easy money, and more to come,” he told himself, complacently, and the hand in his pocket touched the thousand-lira note that had been transferred from the wallet of Tarsis. In other cities there had been similar risings, and the rulers, appalled by the power of the people to help themselves, decided suddenly to give them the measures of relief that Mario Forza and his Parliamentary group had been asking for months. The General Government issued a decree suspending the entire duty on wheat; the municipal authorities of Milan put forth a proclamation saying that the price of bread would be reduced at the public expense. But the concessions were too late. Not by bread alone was the madness to be appeased. The fire of insurrection had entered the blood, and the masses went on with their object lesson in the science of bettering social conditions. Refused the reasonable, they demanded the unreasonable. Emblems of refinement and luxury enraged them. A blind fury which none could foresee attacked the statues in the public squares, the ornaments on the fountains, the treasure houses of painting, sculpture, and letters. A few who loved and revered such things risked their lives to save them.