shouts redoubled: 'Down with the ordinances! These are
disguised gendarmes! Vive la liberte!--We must kill them! Let's hang the
spies to the lamp-posts!'

"Danger was imminent, and I realized that only a patriotic harangue
would get us out of the scrape. While they were releasing Christian, I
jumped upon Fidele so as to be seen by all and shouted:

"'Vive la liberte!'

"'Vive la liberte!' replied the crowd.

"'Down with Charles Tenth! Down with the ministers! Down with the
ordinances!'

"'Down!' shouted a thousand voices at once.

"You understand, ladies, this was a sort of bait, intended to close the
mouths of these brutes.

"'We are all citizens, we are all Frenchmen,' I continued; 'we must not
soil our hands with the blood of one of our disarmed brothers. After
a victory there are no enemies. This officer was doing his duty in
fulfilling his chief's commands; let us do ours by dying, if necessary,
for our country and the preservation of our rights.'

"'Vive la liberte! vive la liberte!' shouted the crowd. 'He is right;
the officer was doing his duty. It would be assassination!' exclaimed
numerous voices.

"'Thanks, Marillac,' said Bergenheim to me, as I took his hand to lead
him away, availing ourselves of the effect of my harangue; 'but do not
press me so hard, for I really believe that my right arm is broken; only
for that, I should ask you to return me my sword that I might show this
rabble that they can not kill a Bergenheim as they would a chicken.'

"'Let him cry: Vive la Charte!' roared out a man, with a ferocious face.

"'I receive orders from nobody,' Christian replied, in a very loud
voice, as he glared at him with eyes which would have put a rhinoceros
to flight."

"Your husband is really a very brave man," said Mademoiselle de
Corandeuil, addressing Clemence.

"Brave as an old warrior. This time he pushed his courage to the verge
of imprudence; I do not know what the result might have been if the
crowd had not been dispersed a second time by the approach of the
lancers, who were returning through the boulevard. I led Bergenheim into
a cafe; fortunately, his arm was only sprained." Just at this moment
Marillac's story was interrupted by a sound of voices and hurried steps.
The door opened suddenly, and Aline burst into the room with her usual
impetuosity.

"What has happened to you, Aline?" exclaimed Madame de Bergenheim,
hurrying to her sister's side. The young girl's riding-habit and ha