andant Berthier, a Berthier before whom are great
things unknown, lies for the present under blockade at Bellevue in
Versailles. By no tactics could he get Mesdames' Luggage stirred from
the Courts there; frantic Versaillese women came screaming about him;
his very troops cut the waggon-traces; he retired to the interior,
waiting better times. (Campan, ii. 132.)

Nay, in these same hours, while Mesdames hardly cut out from Moret by
the sabre's edge, are driving rapidly, to foreign parts, and not yet
stopped at Arnay, their august nephew poor Monsieur, at Paris has dived
deep into his cellars of the Luxembourg for shelter; and according to
Montgaillard can hardly be persuaded up again. Screeching multitudes
environ that Luxembourg of his: drawn thither by report of his
departure: but, at sight and sound of Monsieur, they become crowing
multitudes; and escort Madame and him to the Tuileries with vivats.
(Montgaillard, ii. 282; Deux Amis, vi. c. 1.) It is a state of nervous
excitability such as few Nations know.

Chapter 2.3.V.

The Day of Poniards.

Or, again, what means this visible reparation of the Castle of
Vincennes? Other Jails being all crowded with prisoners, new space is
wanted here: that is the Municipal account. For in such changing of
Judicatures, Parlements being abolished, and New Courts but just set up,
prisoners have accumulated. Not to say that in these times of discord
and club-law, offences and committals are, at any rate, more numerous.
Which Municipal account, does it not sufficiently explain the
phenomenon? Surely, to repair the Castle of Vincennes was of all
enterprises that an enlightened Municipality could undertake, the most
innocent.

Not so however does neighbouring Saint-Antoine look on it: Saint-Antoine
to whom these peaked turrets and grim donjons, all-too near her own
dark dwelling, are of themselves an offence. Was not Vincennes a kind of
minor Bastille? Great Diderot and Philosophes have lain in durance here;
great Mirabeau, in disastrous eclipse, for forty-two months. And now
when the old Bastille has become a dancing-ground (had any one the mirth
to dance), and its stones are getting built into the Pont Louis-Seize,
does this minor, comparative insignificance of a Bastille flank
itself with fresh-hewn mullions, spread out tyrannous wings; menacing
Patriotism? New space for prisoners: and what prisoners? A d'Orleans,
with the chief Patriots on the tip of the Left? It is said, t