, making their rounds along some military road built on
the shore of a phosphorescent sea, and circling some unknown Babel.

On the night in question, the Viorne roared hoarsely at the foot of
the rocks bordering the route. Amidst the continuous rumbling of the
torrent, the insurgents could distinguish the sharp, wailing notes of
the tocsin. The villages scattered about the plain, on the other side of
the river, were rising, sounding alarm-bells, and lighting signal fires.
Till daybreak the marching column, which the persistent tolling of
a mournful knell seemed to pursue in the darkness, thus beheld the
insurrection spreading along the valley, like a train of powder. The
fires showed in the darkness like stains of blood; echoes of distant
songs were wafted to them; the whole vague distance, blurred by the
whitish vapours of the moon, stirred confusedly, and suddenly broke into
a spasm of anger. For leagues and leagues the scene remained the same.

These men, marching on under the blind impetus of the fever with which
the events in Paris had inspired Republican hearts, became elated at
seeing that long stretch of country quivering with revolt. Intoxicated
with enthusiastic belief in the general insurrection of which they
dreamed, they fancied that France was following them; on the other side
of the Viorne, in that vast ocean of diffused light, they imagined there
were endless files of men rushing like themselves to the defence of the
Republic. All simplicity and delusion, as multitudes so often are, they
imagined, in their uncultured minds, that victory was easy and certain.
They would have seized and shot as a traitor any one who had then
asserted that they were the only ones who had the courage of their
duty, and that the rest of the country, overwhelmed with fright, was
pusillanimously allowing itself to be garrotted.

They derived fresh courage, too, from the welcome accorded to them
by the few localities that lay along their route on the slopes of the
Garrigues. The inhabitants rose _en masse_ immediately the little army
drew near; women ran to meet them, wishing them a speedy victory, while
men, half clad, seized the first weapons they could find and rushed to
join their ranks. There was a fresh ovation at every village, shouts of
welcome and farewell many times reiterated.

Towards daybreak the moon disappeared behind the Garrigues and the
insurgents continued their rapid march amidst the dense darkness of
a w