ance,
and fever had already commenced when he took his place in the coupe.
If there be a thing which a man should not do when his system is
undermined, and his pulse between 90 and 100, it is to travel all night
by a railway express. Nevertheless, as the Englishman's will was yet
stronger than his frame, he would not give himself more than an hour's
rest, and again started for Berlin. Long before he got to Berlin,
the will failed him--as well as the frame. He was lifted out of the
carriage, taken to a hotel in a small German town, and six hours
afterwards he was delirious. It was fortunate for him that under such
circumstances plenty of money and Scott's circular-notes for some
hundreds were found in his pocketbook, so that he did not fail to
receive attentive nursing and skilful medical treatment. There, for
the present, I must leave him--leave him for how long? But any village
apothecary could say that fever such as his must run its course. He was
still in bed, and very dimly--and that but at times--conscious, when the
German armies were gathering round the penfold of Sedan.

CHAPTER VIII.

When the news of the disastrous day at Sedan reached Paris, the first
effect was that of timid consternation. There were a few cries of
Decheance! fewer still of Vive la Republique among the motley crowds;
but they were faint, and chiefly by ragged gamins. A small body repaired
to Trochu and offered him the sceptre, which he politely declined. A
more important and respectable body--for it comprised the majority
of the Corps Legislatif--urged Palikao to accept the temporary
dictatorship, which the War Minister declined with equal politeness. In
both these overtures it was clear that the impulse of the proposers was
towards any form of government rather than republican. The sergens de
ville were sufficient that day to put down riot. They did make a charge
on a mob, which immediately ran away.

The morning of that day the Council of Ten were summoned by
Lebeau--minus only Rameau, who was still too unwell to attend, and the
Belgian, not then at Paris; but their place was supplied by the
two travelling members, who had been absent from the meeting before
recorded. These were conspirators better known in history than those I
have before described; professional conspirators--personages who from
their youth upwards had done little else but conspire. Following the
discreet plan pursued elsewhere throughout this humble work, I give