And now, Couthon, Payan, we will dally no longer with Tallien and his
crew. I have information that the Convention will NOT attend the Fete on
the 10th. We must trust only to the sword of the law. I must compose
my thoughts,--prepare my harangue. To-morrow, I will reappear at the
Convention; to-morrow, bold St. Just joins us, fresh from our victorious
armies; to-morrow, from the tribune, I will dart the thunderbolt on the
masked enemies of France; to-morrow, I will demand, in the face of the
country, the heads of the conspirators."

CHAPTER 7.VIII.

Le glaive est contre toi tourne de toutes parties.
La Harpe, "Jeanne de Naples," Act iv. sc. 4.

(The sword is raised against you on all sides.)

In the mean time Glyndon, after an audience of some length with C--,
in which the final preparations were arranged, sanguine of safety,
and foreseeing no obstacle to escape, bent his way back to Fillide.
Suddenly, in the midst of his cheerful thoughts, he fancied he heard a
voice too well and too terribly recognised, hissing in his ear, "What!
thou wouldst defy and escape me! thou wouldst go back to virtue and
content. It is in vain,--it is too late. No, _I_ will not haunt thee;
HUMAN footsteps, no less inexorable, dog thee now. Me thou shalt not see
again till in the dungeon, at midnight, before thy doom! Behold--"

And Glyndon, mechanically turning his head, saw, close behind him, the
stealthy figure of a man whom he had observed before, but with little
heed, pass and repass him, as he quitted the house of Citizen C--.
Instantly and instinctively he knew that he was watched,--that he was
pursued. The street he was in was obscure and deserted, for the day was
oppressively sultry, and it was the hour when few were abroad, either
on business or pleasure. Bold as he was, an icy chill shot through his
heart, he knew too well the tremendous system that then reigned in Paris
not to be aware of his danger. As the sight of the first plague-boil to
the victim of the pestilence, was the first sight of the shadowy spy
to that of the Revolution: the watch, the arrest, the trial, the
guillotine,--these made the regular and rapid steps of the monster that
the anarchists called Law! He breathed hard, he heard distinctly the
loud beating of his heart. And so he paused, still and motionless,
gazing upon the shadow that halted also behind him.

Presently, the absence of all allies to the spy, the solitude of the
streets, re