orse hired from the Breton arme that he
set out next morning; and an hour's brisk ride under a grey wintry sky,
by a half-ruined road through ten miles of flat, uninteresting country,
brought him to the city of Rennes.

He rode across the main bridge over the Vilaine, and so into the upper
and principal part of that important city of some thirty thousand
souls, most of whom, he opined from the seething, clamant crowds that
everywhere blocked his way, must on this day have taken to the streets.
Clearly Philippe had not overstated the excitement prevailing there.

He pushed on as best he could, and so came at last to the Place Royale,
where he found the crowd to be most dense. From the plinth of the
equestrian statue of Louis XV, a white-faced young man was excitedly
addressing the multitude. His youth and dress proclaimed the student,
and a group of his fellows, acting as a guard of honour to him, kept the
immediate precincts of the statue.

Over the heads of the crowd Andre-Louis caught a few of the phrases
flung forth by that eager voice.

"It was the promise of the King... It is the King's authority they
flout... They arrogate to themselves the whole sovereignty in Brittany.
The King has dissolved them... These insolent nobles defying their
sovereign and the people..."

Had he not known already, from what Philippe had told him, of the events
which had brought the Third Estate to the point of active revolt, those
few phrases would fully have informed him. This popular display of
temper was most opportune to his need, he thought. And in the hope that
it might serve his turn by disposing to reasonableness the mind of the
King's Lieutenant, he pushed on up the wide and well-paved Rue Royale,
where the concourse of people began to diminish. He put up his hired
horse at the Come de Cerf, and set out again, on foot, to the Palais de
Justice.

There was a brawling mob by the framework of poles and scaffoldings
about the building cathedral, upon which work had been commenced a year
ago. But he did not pause to ascertain the particular cause of that
gathering. He strode on, and thus came presently to the handsome
Italianate palace that was one of the few public edifices that had
survived the devastating fire of sixty years ago.

He won through with difficulty to the great hall, known as the Salle
des Pas Perdus, where he was left to cool his heels for a full half-hour
after he had found an usher so condescending as to i