osition by clutching one of the legs of
the bronze horse, flung his voice like a bugle-note over the heads of
that seething mob.

"Citizens of Rennes, the motherland is in danger!"

The effect was electric. A stir ran, like a ripple over water, across
that froth of upturned human faces, and completest silence followed.
In that great silence they looked at this slim young man, hatless,
long wisps of his black hair fluttering in the breeze, his neckcloth in
disorder, his face white, his eyes on fire.

Andre-Louis felt a sudden surge of exaltation as he realized by instinct
that at one grip he had seized that crowd, and that he held it fast in
the spell of his cry and his audacity.

Even Le Chapelier, though still clinging to his ankle, had ceased to
tug. The reformer, though unshaken in his assumption of Andre-Louis'
intentions, was for a moment bewildered by the first note of his appeal.

And then, slowly, impressively, in a voice that travelled clear to the
ends of the square, the young lawyer of Gavrillac began to speak.

"Shuddering in horror of the vile deed here perpetrated, my voice
demands to be heard by you. You have seen murder done under your
eyes--the murder of one who nobly, without any thought of self, gave
voice to the wrongs by which we are all oppressed. Fearing that voice,
shunning the truth as foul things shun the light, our oppressors sent
their agents to silence him in death."

Le Chapelier released at last his hold of Andre-Louis' ankle, staring
up at him the while in sheer amazement. It seemed that the fellow was in
earnest; serious for once; and for once on the right side. What had come
to him?

"Of assassins what shall you look for but assassination? I have a
tale to tell which will show that this is no new thing that you have
witnessed here to-day; it will reveal to you the forces with which you
have to deal. Yesterday..."

There was an interruption. A voice in the crowd, some twenty paces,
perhaps, was raised to shout:

"Yet another of them!"

Immediately after the voice came a pistol-shot, and a bullet flattened
itself against the bronze figure just behind Andre-Louis.

Instantly there was turmoil in the crowd, most intense about the spot
whence the shot had been fired. The assailant was one of a considerable
group of the opposition, a group that found itself at once beset on
every side, and hard put to it to defend him.

From the foot of the plinth rang the voice of the student