.

JEANNE.
A small band of workmen was coming towards Via della Marmorata, It was about noon, and they had been at work on a house in course of construction in Via Galvani.

Seeing little groups of people standing under the trees, other little groups at the doors, and people also at the windows of the two last houses on the right and left, a workman, who was following the others at a short distance, called out in a loud voice to his companions: "What a lot of fools for one knave!" A big, bearded man, who was standing on the threshold of a small shop, heard this, and, coming forward, accosted him threateningly.
"What's that you say ?" The other stopped and stared at him, answering mockingly: "Get out! Just what I please!" The big man struck him a blow, and then the other workmen fell upon the big man in defence of their comrade.

Cries, oaths, the flashing of knives, the shrieks of women from the windows, people rushing up from the avenue, policemen and guards hurrying to the spot; in an instant the whole street was in a black ferment, while the surging, howling mob was pitching from right to left and from left to right, as if the street were a ship in an angry sea.

Two yards from the spot where the guards and the workmen were struggling, it would have been difficult to ascertain what had happened.