mands. It was evident that the struggle was at hand.

"Let us begin," said Charpentier; and he raised his gun.

Denis held his arm back. "Wait," he said.

Then an epic incident was seen.

Denis slowly mounted the paving-stones of the barricade, ascended to the
top, and stood there erect, unarmed and bareheaded.

Thence he raised his voice, and, facing the soldiers, he shouted to
them, "Citizens!"

At this word a sort of electric shudder ensued which was felt from one
barricade to the other. Every sound was hushed, every voice was silent,
on both sides reigned a deep religious and solemn silence. By the
distant glimmer of a few lighted windows the soldiers could vaguely
distinguish a man standing above a mass of shadows, like a phantom who
was speaking to them in the night.

Denis continued,--

"Citizens of the Army! Listen to me!"

The silence grew still more profound.

He resumed,--

"What have you come to do here? You and ourselves, all of us who are in
this street, at this hour, with the sword or gun in hand, what are we
about to do? To kill each other! To kill each other, citizens! Why?
Because they have raised a misunderstanding between us! Because we
obey--you your discipline--we our Right! You believe that you are
carrying out your instructions; as for us, we know that we are doing our
duty. Yes! it is Universal Suffrage, it is the Right of the Republic, it
is our Right that we are defending, and our Right, soldiers, is your
Right. The Army is the People, as the People is the Army. We are the
same nation, the some country, the same men. My God! See, is there any
Russian blood in my veins, in me who am speaking to you? Is there any
Prussian blood in your veins, in you who are listening to me? No! Why
then should we fight? It is always an unfortunate thing for a man to
fire upon a man. Nevertheless, a gun-shot between a Frenchman and an
Englishman can be understood; but between a Frenchman and a Frenchman,
ah! that wounds Reason, that wounds France, that wounds our mother!"

All anxiously listened to him. At this moment from the opposite
barricade a voice shouted to him,--

"Go home, then!"

At this coarse interruption an angry murmur ran through Denis's
companions, and several guns could be heard being loaded. Denis
restrained them by a sign.

This sign possessed a strange authority.

"Who is this man?" the combatants behind the barricade asked each other.
Suddenly they cried out,--

"He is