net abruptly, "Your papers?" Quinet held out his passport
unfolded. The gendarmes said to him, "Come out of the carriage, so that
we can compare your description." It happened, however, that the
Wallachian passport contained no description. The corporal frowned, and
said to his subordinates, "An irregular passport! Go and fetch the
Commissary."

All seemed lost, but Madame Cantacuzene began to speak to Quinet in the
most Wallachian words in the world, with incredible assurance and
volubility, so much so that the gendarme, convinced that he had to deal
with all Wallachia in person, and seeing the train ready to start,
returned the passport to Quinet, saying to him, "There! be off with
you!"--a few hours afterwards Edgar Quinet was in Belgium.

Arnauld de l'Ariege also had his adventures. He was a marked man, he had
to hide himself. Arnauld being a Catholic, Madame Arnauld went to the
priest; the Abbe Deguerry slipped out of the way, the Abbe Maret
consented to conceal him; the Abbe Maret was honest and good. Arnauld
d'Ariege remained hidden for a fortnight at the house of this worthy
priest. He wrote from the Abbe Maret's a letter to the Archbishop of
Paris, urging him to refuse the Pantheon, which a decree of Louis
Bonaparte took away from France and gave to Rome. This letter angered
the Archbishop. Arnauld, proscribed, reached Brussels, and there, at the
age of eighteen months, died the "little Red," who on the 3d of December
had carried the workman's letter to the Archbishop--an angel sent by God
to the priest who had not understood the angel, and who no longer knew
God.

In this medley of incidents and adventures each one had his drama.
Cournet's drama was strange and terrible.

Cournet, it may be remembered, had been a naval officer. He was one of
those men of a prompt, decisive character, who magnetized other men, and
who on certain extraordinary occasions send an electric shock through a
multitude. He possessed an imposing air, broad shoulders, brawny arms,
powerful fists, a tall stature, all of which give confidence to the
masses, and the intelligent expression which gives confidence to the
thinkers. You saw him pass, and you recognized strength; you heard him
speak, and you felt the will, which is more than strength. When quite a
youth he had served in the navy. He combined in himself in a certain
degree--and it is this which made this energetic man, when well directed
and well employed, a means of enthusias