s safe in the thick of the crowd,
struggling for a view of the fire.

It was a strange, motley crowd, composed not only of the rascality of
Paris, but of a number of shopkeepers and respectable citizens whom the
rumour of the fire and the arrest of the notorious deputy had called on
the scene at this midnight hour. Many of the faces lit up by the lurid
glare of the flames were haggard and uneasy, as if they belonged to
those who, like me, found a crowd the safest hiding-place in those days.
A few seemed drawn together by a love of horror in any form. Others
were there for what they might steal. Others, sucked in by the rush,
were there by no will of their own, involuntary spectators of a gruesome
spectacle.

Among the latter were the unfortunate occupants of a travel-stained
coach, who, after surviving all the perils of the road between Dieppe
and Paris, had now been suddenly upset by the crowd, and were painfully,
and amid the coarse jeers of the onlookers, extricating themselves from
their embarrassing position. Just as the tide swept me to the spot, a
male passenger had drawn himself up through the window and was
scrambling down on to _terra firma_.

"Help the ladies!" cried he, glad enough evidently of his own escape,
but not over-anxious to return to the scene of his alarm; "help the
ladies, some one!"

Just then, first a hand, then a pale face appeared at the window, which,
if I had seen a ghost, could not have startled me more. It was the face
of Miss Kit, with the red light of the fire glowing on it.

"Help us!" she said, in French.

Need I tell you I had her in my arms in a moment; and after her her
mother, who was not only frightened but hurt by the shock of the
overturn.

That little moment was worth all the perils and risks of the past
months; and if I could have had my own way, I would have stood there,
with my little lady's hand clutching my arm, for a month.

It was impossible they could recognise me, with my back to the light,
happening upon them in so unlooked-for a way. But when I said, "Trust
to me, Miss Kit," her hand tightened on my sleeve with a quick pressure,
and she said,--

"Barry! thank God we are safe now!"

I was a proud man that night as I fought my way through the crowd with
two distressed ladies under my wing, and a fist and a foot for any one
who so much as dared to touch the hem of their garments.

Mrs Gorman became so faint in a little that I was forced, as soon as