immense
throng of angry men, a mob ripe for mischief, collecting on the Place de
l'Hotel de Ville, whence they swarmed into the halls and public offices,
making prisoners the members of the Government, whom the National Guard
rescued later in the day only because they feared the triumph of those
incendiaries who were clamoring for the commune. And the Belgian journal
wound up with a few stinging comments on the great City of Paris,
thus torn by civil war when the enemy was at its gates. Was it not the
presage of approaching decomposition, the puddle of blood and mire that
was to engulf a world?

"That's true enough!" said Jean, whose face was very white. "They've no
business to be squabbling when the Prussians are at hand!"

But Henriette, who had said nothing as yet, always making it her rule to
hold her tongue when politics were under discussion, could not restrain
a cry that rose from her heart. Her thoughts were ever with her brother.

"_Mon Dieu_, I hope that Maurice, with all the foolish ideas he has in
his head, won't let himself get mixed up in this business!"

They were all silent in their distress; and it was the doctor, who was
ardently patriotic, who resumed the conversation.

"Never mind; if there are no more soldiers, others will grow. Metz has
surrendered, Paris may surrender, even; but it don't follow from that
that France is wiped out. Yes, the strong-box is all right, as our
peasants say, and we will live on in spite of all."

It was clear, however, that he was hoping against hope. He spoke of the
army that was collecting on the Loire, whose initial performances, in
the neighborhood of Arthenay, had not been of the most promising;
it would become seasoned and would march to the relief of Paris.
His enthusiasm was aroused to boiling pitch by the proclamations of
Gambetta, who had left Paris by balloon on the 7th of October and two
days later established his headquarters at Tours, calling on every
citizen to fly to arms, and instinct with a spirit at once so virile
and so sagacious that the entire country gave its adhesion to the
dictatorial powers assumed for the public safety. And was there not talk
of forming another army in the North, and yet another in the East, of
causing soldiers to spring from the ground by sheer force of faith? It
was to be the awakening of the provinces, the creation of all that was
wanting by exercise of indomitable will, the determination to continue
the struggle until