but we cannot allow
civilians to remain here.

_Monsieur_. I wait for Valerien to open upon us.]

Yes, my good friends and idlers, the sad scene would not have been
complete without your presence to relieve its sadness. If respect for
your persons kept you away from danger, it at least gives zest to the
place, a locality that in a few short minutes will be dangerous again.
At five the armistice was over, but for all that, the National Guard had
great difficulty in clearing the ground, until real danger, the
excitement sought for, arrived, and sent the spectators much further up
the Avenue de la Grande Armee.

[Illustration: MDLLE, ET SES COUSINES. 5.30. Great guns of Valerien, why
do you not begin! Know you that tubes charged with bright eyes are
directed against you!]

LXIII.

I had almost made up my mind not to continue these notes. Tired and
weary, I remained two days at home, wishing to see nothing, hear
nothing, trying to absorb myself in my books, and to take up the lost
thread of my interrupted studies, but all to no purpose.

It is ten in the morning, and I am out again in search of news. How many
things may have happened in two days! Not far from the Hotel de Ville
excited groups are assembled at the corners of the streets that lead out
of the Rue de Rivoli. They seem waiting for something--what are they
waiting for? Vague rumours, principally of a peaceful and conciliatory
nature, circulate from group to group, where women decidedly
predominate.

"If _they_ help us we are saved!" says a workwoman, who is holding a
little boy in the dress of a national guard by the hand.--"Who?" I
ask.--"Ah! Monsieur, it is the Freemasons who are taking the side of the
Commune; they are going to cross Paris before our eyes. The Commune must
be in the right if the Freemasons think so."--"Here they come!" says the
little boy, pulling his mother along with all his strength.

[Illustration: PROTOT[66], DELEGATE OF JUSTICE.]

The vehicles draw up on one side to make room, the crowd presses to the
edge of the pavement. The drums beat, a military band strikes up the
"Marseillaise." First come five staff-officers, and then six members of
the Commune, wearing their red scarfs, fringed with gold. I fancy I
recognize Citizens Delescluze and Protot among them. "They are going to
the Hotel de Ville!" cries an enthusiastic butcher-boy, holding a large
basket of meat on his head, which he steadies with one hand, while with