aughtering your brethren!!!"

"As a rule the brethren decline to be slaughtered, Mary," Cuthbert said
as they read the proclamation. "You see, if the troops fire they are
butchers, if the National Guards fire they are heroes. Considering that
Paris has ten armed men to every one McMahon has got, even if all the
troops could be relied upon, the Parisians must indeed be of a mild
temper if they submit to be butchered."

Monsieur Michaud now left them to take his place in the ranks of his
battalion. It was not long before the National Guards were in motion,
and for hours columns of troops moved up the Champs Elysees. The Rue
Rivoli was actually choked with the men; the mob shouted "Vive la
Commune" until they were hoarse, and the battalions from the working
quarters lustily sang the chorus of the Marseillaise.

At ten o'clock Cuthbert and Mary arrived at the Arc de Triomphe on their
way back. Along the whole line from the Tuileries the National Guard
were bivouacked. The arms were piled down the centre of the road, and
many of the men had already wrapped themselves in their blankets and
lain down to sleep with their heads on their knapsacks. The wine-shops
in the neighborhood were all crowded, and it was evident that many of
the men had determined to keep it up all night.

Madame Michaud had coffee ready for them on their return, and after
drinking it they went to their rooms, Mary being completely tired out
with the fatigue and excitement of the day. At five o'clock Cuthbert was
up; he had told Mary the night before that he would return for her at
eight. On arriving at the Arc de Triomphe he found the National Guards
pouring down the avenue to the Fort Maillot. Three heavy columns were
marching along the roads which converged at the Bridge of Neuilly. Here
Cuthbert expected a desperate struggle, but a few shots only were fired,
and then a small body of troops covered by a party of skirmishers,
retired up the hill, and then turning off made their way towards Fort
Valerien.

The force was evidently insufficient to hold the bridge against the
masses of revolutionists advancing against it, and the real resistance
to the forces of the Commune would commence further back. Crossing the
bridge the National Guard spread out to the right and left and mounted
the hill, as they did so some eighteen-pounder guns which had been the
day before mounted on the Fort, opened fire on the bridge, and for a
time the forward movement cease