If I had the strength and courage to suffocate myself I would do so, he said. I am ready to die. I should be dead. Only you can help me, Rafael. Only you can help protect Gabriella from my affliction.

Before I could reply, the door flew open. Gabriella stood on the threshold. They are here! she cried. The flagellants!

I rushed over to her and took her by the shoulders. Stay inside, by the door, but do not approach your father, I instructed.

I stepped out into the street. A group of Jewish men identifiable by their long beards and robes stood side by side in front of the row of houses, as though to protect them with their bodies. Across from them, at least ten or more flagellants gathered beside a cart that was loaded with hay. They held clubs, whips, and other weapons. Two of them held lit torches even though the sun was high in the sky. I recognized their leader from the previous sighting, when he had worn a crown of thorns and dragged a heavy cross behind him. Today he was encumbered by neither. He stood at the front of the gang, holding a bulky wooden club in one hand and shaking his fist with the other.

Where is David ben Solomon? he cried in a heavy Germanic accent.

The Jews looked fearfully from one to the next, but no one answered.

Where is David ben Solomon? the leader asked again, and the men holding the torches moved forward with deliberate menace.

We will burn down your houses with your vile women and progeny still inside, the leader said. Is that what you prefer?

A corpulent man took a hesitant step forward. I am David ben Solomon, he said weakly.

The leader marched over to ben Solomon without uttering a word. As soon as he reached within arm’s length, he swung his club and smashed it across the man’s crown. Ben Solomon crumpled to the ground. A younger man rushed to the aid of the older man but he only made it a few steps before he, too, was felled by the same club. The rest of the flagellants surged forward, while the Jews backed up in response.

How many more of you want the same? the leader shouted.

The younger man with the blood pouring from his forehead struggled to rise to his knees. The leader bashed him on the head again, and kept hitting him even after he fell still to the ground.

Three or four of the flagellants carried armfuls of hay and spread them around and over the two fallen men until it was piled to knee-height.

I stood paralyzed by revulsion, unable to look away from the abomination that I could see was imminent.

The men with the torches sauntered around the pile and lit the hay at multiple spots. Murmurs of protest emerged from the mouths of the other Jews, but none of them moved to stop the flagellants.