n a hunchback's cracked voice the _citoyen_ Beauvisage begged the
delegates to seat themselves and put himself entirely at their service.

Guenot then asked him if he knew a _ci-devant_ Monsieur des Ilettes,
residing near the Pont-Neuf.

"It is an individual," he added, "whose arrest I am instructed to
effect,"--and he exhibited the order from the Committee of General
Security.

Beauvisage, after racking his memory for a while, replied that he knew
no individual of that name, that the suspect in question might not be an
inhabitant of his Section, certain portions of the _Sections du Museum_,
_de l'Unite_, _de Marat-et-Marseille_ being likewise in the near
neighbourhood of the Pont-Neuf; that, if he did live in the Section, it
must be under another name than that borne on the Committee's order;
that, nevertheless, it would not be long before they laid hands on him.

"Let's lose no time," urged Guenot. "Our vigilance was aroused in this
case by a letter from one of the man's accomplices that was intercepted
and put into the hands of the Committee a fortnight ago, but which the
_citoyen_ Lacroix took action upon only yesterday evening. We are
overdone with business; denunciations flow in from every quarter in such
abundance one does not know which to attend to."

"Denunciations," replied Beauvisage proudly, "are coming in freely, too,
to the Committee of Vigilance of our Section. Some make these
revelations out of patriotism, others lured by the bait of a bank-bill
for a hundred _sols_. Many children denounce their parents, whose
property they covet."

"This letter," resumed Guenot, "emanates from a _ci-devant_ called
Rochemaure, a woman of gallantry, at whose house they played _biribi_,
and is addressed to one _citoyen_ Rauline; but is really for an _emigre_
in the service of Pitt. I have brought it with me to communicate to you
the portion relating to this man des Ilettes."

He drew the letter from his pocket.

"It begins with copious details as to those members of the Convention
who might, according to the woman's tale, be gained over by the offer of
a sum of money or the promise of a well-paid post under a new
Government, more stable than the present. Then comes the following
passage:

_"I have just returned from a visit to Monsieur des Ilettes, who
lives near the Pont-Neuf in a garret where you must be either a cat
or an imp to get at him; he is reduced to earning a living by
making punc