ed. The trumpets sounded
shrilly on the night air of our tranquil Parisian quarter.

"Right you are. That means down we go! They might have waited until I
finished my chapter, hang them! There's no electricity in our cellar,"
and I cast aside my book in disgust.

Taking our coats and a steamer rug we prepared to descend. In the
court-yard the clatter of feet resounded.

The cellar of our seventeenth century dwelling being extremely deep and
solidly built, was at once commandeered as refuge for one hundred
persons in case of bombardment, and we must needs share it with some
ninety odd less fortunate neighbours.

"Hurry up there. Hurry up, I say," calls a sharp nasal voice.

That voice belonged to Monsieur Leddin, formerly a clock maker, but now
of the _Service Auxiliare_, and on whom devolved the policing of our
entire little group, simply because of his uniform.

His observations, however, have but little effect. People come
straggling along, yawning from having been awakened in their first
sleep, and almost all of them is hugging a bundle or parcel containing
his most precious belongings.

It is invariably an explosion which finally livens their gait, and they
hurry into the stairway. A slight jam is thus produced.

"No pushing there! Order!" cries another stentorian voice, belonging
to Monsieur Vidalenc, the coal dealer.

"Here! here!" echo several high pitched trebles. "_Tres bien, tres
bien_. Follow in line--what's the use of crowding?"

Monsieur Leddin makes another and still shriller effort, calling from
above:

"Be calm now. Don't get excited."

"Who's excited?"

"You are!"

"Monsieur Leddin, you're about as fit to be a soldier as I to be an
Archbishop," sneered the butcher's wife. "You'd do better to leave us
alone and hold your peace."

General hilarity, followed by murmurs of approval from various other
females, which completely silenced Monsieur Leddin, who never reopened
his mouth during the entire evening, so that one could not tell whether
he was nursing his offended dignity or hiding his absolute incompetence
to assume authority.

Places were quickly found on two or three long wooden benches, and a
few chairs provided for the purpose, some persons even spreading out
blankets and camping on the floor.

The raiment displayed was the typical negligee of the Parisian working
class; a dark coloured woollen dressing gown, covered over with a shawl
or a cape, all the attire sh