They wreaked their vengeance on the scene of their disgrace, and on all
those who had in any way lent, or were suspected to have lent, their aid
to its consummation. The furniture of the Town-hall was broken in
pieces; the barbers' shops were ransacked, and their razors, brushes,
and basins scattered through the street; nor was this the worst; one
poor wretch was recognized who had himself wielded a razor on the
occasion; he was dragged from his little shop by those on whom he had
operated, and was swung up by his neck from a lamp-iron in the sight of
his wife and children, who had followed his persecutors through the
street. The poor woman pleaded on her knees for the life of her husband,
as a wife can plead for the life of him whom she loves better than the
whole world. She offered all her little wealth and her prayers; she
supplicated them with tears and with blessings; she seized hold of the
knees of the wretch who held the rope, and implored him by his
remembrance of his father, by his regard for his own wife, his love for
his own children, to spare to her the father of her infants; but she
asked in vain; the man, feeling that his legs were encumbered, spurned
the woman from him with his foot, and kept his hand tight upon the
lamp-rope till the dying convulsions of the poor barber had ceased.
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