slightest evidence of disapproval to the abominable story of the murder of Generals Lecomte and Clement Thomas.  Generals, they called themselves; fine generals, they!  The leaders they had had at Sedan rose before his memory, voluptuaries and imbeciles; one more, one less, what odds did it make!  And the remainder of the day passed in the same state of half-crazed excitement, which served to distort everything to his vision; it was an insurrection that the very stones of the streets seemed to have favored, spreading, swelling, finally becoming master of all at a stroke in the unforeseen fatality of its triumph, and at ten o’clock in the evening delivering the Hotel de Ville over to the members of the Central Committee, who were greatly surprised to find themselves there.

There was one memory, however, that remained very distinct to Maurice’s mind:  his unexpected meeting with Jean.  It was three days now since the latter had reached Paris, without a sou in his pocket, emaciated and enfeebled by the illness that had consigned him to a hospital in Brussels and kept him there two months, and having had the luck to fall in with Captain Ravaud, who had commanded a company in the 106th, he had enlisted at once in his former acquaintance’s new company in the 124th.  His old rank as corporal had been restored to him, and that evening he had just left the Prince Eugene barracks with his squad on his way to the left bank, where the entire army was to concentrate, when a mob collected about his men and stopped them as they were passing along the boulevard Saint-Martin.  The insurgents yelled and shouted, and evidently were preparing to disarm his little band.  With perfect coolness he told them to let him alone, that he had no business with them or their affairs; all he wanted was to obey his orders without harming anybody.  Then a cry of glad surprise was heard, and Maurice, who had chanced to pass that way, threw himself on the other’s neck and gave him a brotherly hug.

“What, is it you!  My sister wrote me about you.  And just think, no later than this very morning I was going to look you up at the war office!”

Jean’s eyes were dim with big tears of pleasure.

“Ah, my dear lad how glad I am to see you once more!  I have been looking for you, too, but where could a fellow expect to find you in this confounded great big place?”

To the crowd, continuing their angry muttering, Maurice turned and said: 

“Let me talk to them, citizens!  They’re good fellows; I’ll answer for them.”  He took his friend’s hands in his, and lowering his voice:  “You’ll join us, won’t you?”