and as I jumped through to the warehouses beyond, I saw dimly in the
darkened room those dozens of city rapscallions whom we had unleashed
hurl themselves on to the counters and literally tear them to pieces.
They knew! Thousands of strings of cash were laid bare by this action,
and with the quickness of lightning hundreds of furious hands tore and
snatched, while hot voices smote the air in snarls and gasps. They
wanted this money--would lose their lives for it. In an instant the
pawn-shop hall had been turned into a sulphurous saturnalia horrid to
witness. That gave you a grim idea of mob violence. I rushed to escape
it....

In the warehouses beyond I found the Frenchmen and the first Cossack,
who had directed the carrying of the place by assault, breaking open
with rude jests chests and boxes, and flinging to the ground the
contents of countless shelves. They cared nothing for the things they
found; they were hunting for treasure. With curses as their
disappointment deepened, and always hurling more and more shelves and
cupboards to the ground, they soon reduced room after room to a
confusion such as I have never before witnessed. Rich silks and costly
furs, boxes of trinkets, embroideries, women's head-dresses, and
hundreds of other things were flung to the ground and trampled under
foot into shapeless masses in a few moments, raising a choking dust
which cut one's breathing. They wanted only treasure, these men, gold
if possible, something which possessed an instant value for
them--something whose very touch spelled fortune. Nothing else. In
some amazement I watched this frantic scene. From the outer courtyards
came the same roar of excitement as the street crowd fought with one
another for possession of all that wealth in cash; separated from one
another by only a few yards, European marauders and Chinese vagabonds,
I reflected, were acting in much the same way. I followed the