Just then the man, rolling his wild eyes about, caught sight of Hugh and Dick.
“See!” he screamed. “There are the wizards who in Venice were seen in the company of the Enemy of Mankind. That good Christian, Basil, has brought them face to face with you, as he promised me that he would.”
As he heard these words Hugh drew his sword and leapt at Basil. But the rogue was watching. With a yell of fear he threw himself among the crowd and there vanished.
“Out weapons, and back to back!” cried Hugh, “for we are snared.”
So the three of them ranged themselves together facing outward. In front of them gleamed Grey Dick’s axe, Hugh’s sword and David’s great knife. In a moment the furious mob was surging round them like the sea, howling, “Down with the foreign wizards! Kill the friends of the Jews!” one solid wall of changing white faces.
A man struck at them with a halbert, but the blow fell short, for he was afraid to come too near. Grey Dick leapt forward, and in a moment was back again, leaving that man dead, smitten through from skull to chin. For a while there was silence, since this sudden death gave them pause, and in it Hugh cried out:
“Are blameless men to be murdered thus? Have we no friends in Avignon?”
“Some,” answered a voice from the outer shadow, though who spoke they could not see.
“Save the protectors of the Jews!” cried the voice again.
Then came a rush and a counter-rush. Fighting began around them in which they took no share. When it had passed over them like a gust of wind, David Day was gone, killed or trodden down, as his companions thought.