curious instinct of
crowds, that he was the awaited bearer of tidings.

"Summon the gentlemen of your Chamber, monsieur," said he, "and you
shall hear all."

"So be it."

A word, and forth they came to crowd upon the steps, but leaving clear
the topmost step and a half-moon space in the middle.

To the spot so indicated, Andre-Louis now advanced very deliberately.
He took his stand there, dominating the entire assembly. He removed
his hat, and launched the opening bombshell of that address which
is historic, marking as it does one of the great stages of France's
progress towards revolution.

"People of this great city of Nantes, I have come to summon you to
arms!"

In the amazed and rather scared silence that followed he surveyed them
for a moment before resuming.

"I am a delegate of the people of Rennes, charged to announce to you
what is taking place, and to invite you in this dreadful hour of our
country's peril to rise and march to her defence."

"Name! Your name!" a voice shouted, and instantly the cry was taken up
by others, until the multitude rang with the question.

He could not answer that excited mob as he had answered the president.
It was necessary to compromise, and he did so, happily. "My name," said
he, "is Omnes Omnibus--all for all. Let that suffice you now. I am a
herald, a mouthpiece, a voice; no more. I come to announce to you that
since the privileged orders, assembled for the States of Brittany in
Rennes, resisted your will--our will--despite the King's plain hint to
them, His Majesty has dissolved the States."

There was a burst of delirious applause. Men laughed and shouted, and
cries of "Vive le Roi!" rolled forth like thunder. Andre-Louis waited,
and gradually the preternatural gravity of his countenance came to be
observed, and to beget the suspicion that there might be more to follow.
Gradually silence was restored, and at last Andre Louis was able to
proceed.

"You rejoice too soon. Unfortunately, the nobles, in their insolent
arrogance, have elected to ignore the royal dissolution, and in despite
of it persist in sitting and in conducting matters as seems good to
them."

A silence of utter dismay greeted that disconcerting epilogue to
the announcement that had been so rapturously received. Andre-Louis
continued after a moment's pause:

"So that these men who were already rebels against the people, rebels,
against justice and equity, rebels against humanity itself, are n