in a flame of
indignation. If a man meets me in the street and pulls me by the nose,
do you think that if he takes off his hat and bows and says that he
withdraws the insult I am going to keep my hands in my pockets? Twice
already has France been humiliated and has stood it? Once when Prussia
made that secret treaty with Bavaria and Baden, and threw it scornfully
in her face; the second time over that Luxembourg affair. Does Germany
think that a great nation, jealous of its honor and full of fiery
elements, is going to stand being kicked as often as she chooses to
kick her? You may say that France was wrong in going to war when she was
really unprepared, and I grant she was unwise, but when a man keeps on
insulting you, you don't say to yourself I must go and take lessons in
boxing before I fight him. You would hit out straight even if he were
twice as big as yourself. That is what I feel about it, Dampierre, and
feeling so I fancy that when the thing begins here I shall get too hot
over it to help joining in. Ah, here come some of the lads."

There was a clatter of feet on the staircase, and a moment later half a
dozen young Frenchmen ran in in a state of wild excitement.

"They have entered Versailles, a party of their horsemen have been seen
from Valerian, and a shot has been fired at them. They have fled."

"Well, I should think they naturally would," Cuthbert said. "A handful
of horsemen are not likely to remain to be made targets of by the guns
of Valerian."

"It is the beginning of the end," one of the students exclaimed. "Paris
will assert herself, France will come to her assistance, and the Germans
will find that it is one thing to fight against the armies of a despot,
and another to stand before a free people in arms."

"I hope so, Rene, but I own I have considerable doubts of it. A man when
he begins to fight, fights because he is there and has got to do it. If
he does not kill the enemy he will be killed; if he does not thrash the
enemy he will be thrashed; and for the time being the question whether
it is by a despot or by a Provisional Government that he is ruled does
not matter to him one single jot. As to the Parisians, we shall see. I
sincerely hope, they will do all that you expect of them, but in point
of fact I would rather have a battalion of trained soldiers than a
brigade of untrained peasants or citizens, however full of ardor they
may be."

"Ah, you English, it is always discipline, disci