This enabled a sufficient
number of them to forgather, in an incredibly short space of time, at
the outskirts of the market-place (occupied by a seething, howling
tangle of humanity)--there to receive the plainest of instructions. They
were to quell the disorder and to single out for punishment, whenever
possible, the strangers, the obvious authors of the rebellion, easily
discernible by their scarlet blouses. Not that the judge was particular
about the lives or deaths of a few natives; he knew that any injuries
received by his countrymen would strengthen his case against the
outsiders. But an order couched in such terms would look well in the
records of the Court.
Within ten minutes the market-place was cleared. The Militia had used
their weapons with such precision that four school children, seven
women, eleven islanders, and twenty-six Apostles were wounded--about
half of them, it was believed, mortally. Order reigned in Nepenthe.
The warm affiliation case having been laid on ice for the nonce, the
next few minutes were occupied by His Worship in issuing warrants of
arrest against the Messiah's followers.
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