il the need for a saviour of society is evident to all. I hope, my
dear fellow, you will not be carried away with these visionary ideas. I
can, of course, understand your predilections for a Republic, but
between your Republic and the Commune, for which the organs of the mob
are already clamoring, there is no shadow of resemblance. They are both
founded, it is true, on the will of the majority, but in the States it
is the majority of an educated and distinctly law-abiding people--here
it is the majority of men who would set the law at defiance, who desire
power simply for the purposes of spoliation."

Dampierre would have replied angrily, but at this moment the door opened
and two or three of the other students entered.

"Have you heard about that affair at Clamart," they demanded eagerly.
"They say the line behaved shamefully, and that Trochu declares they
shall be decimated."

"You may be quite sure that if he said so he will not carry it out,"
Cuthbert said. "The army has to be kept in a good humor, and at any rate
until discipline is fully restored it would be too dangerous a task to
venture on punishing cowardice. It is unfortunate certainly, but things
will get better in time. You can hardly expect to make the fugitives of
a beaten army into heroes all at once. I have not the least doubt that
if the Germans made an attack in full force they would meet with very
slight resistance; but they won't do that. They will go to work in a
regular and steady way. They will erect batteries, commanding every road
out of the town, and will then sit down and starve us out, hastening the
process, perhaps, by a bombardment. But all that will take time. There
will be frequent fighting at the outposts, and if Trochu and the rest of
them make the most of the material they have at hand, poor as much of it
is, they will be able to turn out an army that should be strong enough
to throw itself upon any point in the German line and break its way
out; but it must be an army of soldiers, not a force composed of
disheartened fugitives and half-drilled citizens."

"The National Guard are drilling earnestly," Rene Caillard said. "I have
been watching them this afternoon, they really made a very good show."

"The father of a family with a comfortable home and a prosperous
business can drill as well as the most careless vaurien, Rene; better,
perhaps, for he will take much greater pains; but when it comes to
fighting, half a dozen reckless d