ring through a baize door one is
called upon to contribute a few sous to the fund for making cannon. When
I got there it was about 8.30. The venerable Blanqui was seated at a
table on the tribune; before him were two assessors. One an unwholesome
citizen, with long blond hair hanging down his back, the other a most
truculent-looking ruffian. The hall was nearly full; many were in
blouses, the rest in uniform; about one-fifth of the audience was
composed of women, who either knitted, or nourished the infants, which
they held in their arms. A citizen was speaking. He held a list in his
hand of a new Government. As he read out the names some were applauded,
others rejected. I had found a place on a bench by the side of a lady
with a baby, who was occupied, like most of the other babies, in taking
its supper. Its food, however, apparently did not agree with it, for it
commenced to squall lustily. "Silence," roared a hundred voices, but the
baby only yelled the louder. "Sit upon it," observed some energetic
citizens, looking at me, but not being a Herod, I did not comply with
their order. The mother became frightened lest a _coup d'etat_ should be
made upon her offspring, and after turning it up and solemnly smacking
it, took it away from the club. By this time orator No. 1 had been
succeeded by orator No. 2. This gentleman, a lieutenant in the National
Guard, thus commenced. "Citizens, I am better than any of you.
(Indignant disapproval.) In the Hotel de Ville on Monday I told General
Trochu that he was a coward." (Tremendous shouts of "You are a liar,"
and men and women shook their fists at the speaker.) Up rose the
venerable Blanqui. There was a dead silence. "I am master here," he
said; "when I call a speaker to order he must leave the tribune, until
then he remains." The club listened to the words of the sage with
reverential awe, and the orator was allowed to go on. "This, perhaps, no
one will deny," he continued. "I took an order from the Citizen Flourens
to the public printing establishment. The order was the deposition of
the Government of National Defence"--(great applause)--and satisfied
with his triumph the lieutenant relapsed into private life. After him
followed several other citizens, who proposed resolutions, which were
put and carried. I only remember one of them, it was that the Jesuits in
Vaugirard (a school) should at once be ejected from the territories of
the Republic. At ten o'clock the venerable Blanqui