He held back some men who had discovered a couple of women's figures
slinking along in the shadow beneath a wall. Behind his
remonstrances the Jewesses escaped. His anger against disorder was
growing upon him. . . .
Late that night Benham found himself the leading figure amidst a
party of Jews who had made a counter attack upon a gang of roughs in
a court that had become the refuge of a crowd of fugitives. Some of
the young Jewish men had already been making a fight, rather a poor
and hopeless fight, from the windows of the house near the entrance
of the court, but it is doubtful if they would have made an
effective resistance if it had not been for this tall excited
stranger who was suddenly shouting directions to them in
sympathetically murdered Russian. It was not that he brought
powerful blows or subtle strategy to their assistance, but that he
put heart into them and perplexity into his adversaries because he
was so manifestly non-partizan. Nobody could ever have mistaken
Benham for a Jew. When at last towards dawn a not too zealous
governor called out the troops and began to clear the streets of
rioters, Benham and a band of Jews were still keeping the gateway of
that court behind a hasty but adequate barricade of furniture and
handbarrows.
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