They did it. Alone they did it--the French people--the hard-working,
frugal, loyal commonalty of France--without asking the loan of a sou
from the world outside.

VI

Writing of that last Sunday in the Bois de Boulogne, I find by recurring
to the record that I said: "There is a deal more of good than bad in
every Nation. I take off my hat to the French. But, I have had my fling
and I am quite ready to go home. Even amid the gayety and the glare, the
splendor of color and light, the Hungarian band wafting to the greenery
and the stars the strains of the delicious waltz, La Veuve Joyeuse her
very self--yea, many of her--tapping the time at many adjacent tables,
the song that fills my heart is 'Hame, Hame, Hame!--Hame to my ain
countree.' Yet, to come again, d'ye mind? I should be loath to say
good-by forever to the Bois de Boulogne. I want to come back to Paris.
I always want to come back to Paris. One needs not to make an apology or
give a reason.

"We turn rather sadly away from Pre Catalan and the Cafe Cascade.
We glide adown the flower-bordered path and out from the clusters of
Chinese lanterns, and leave the twinkling groves to their music and
merry-making. Yonder behind us, like a sentinel, rises Mont Valerien.
Before us glimmer the lamps of uncountable coaches, as our own, veering
toward the city, the moon just topping the tower of St. Jacques de la
Boucherie and silver-plating the bronze figures upon the Arch of Stars.

"We enter the Port Maillot. We turn into the Avenue du Bois. Presently
we shall sweep with the rest through the Champs Elysees and on to the
ocean of the infinite, the heart of the mystery we call Life, nowhere so
condensed, so palpable, so appealing. Roll the screen away! The shades
of Clovis and Genevieve may be seen hand-in-hand with the shades of
Martel and Pepin, taking the round of the ghost-walk between St. Denis
and St. Germain, now le Balafre and again Navarre, now the assassins of
the Ligue and now the assassins of the Terror, to keep them company. Nor
yet quite all on murder bent, some on pleasure; the Knights and Ladies
of the Cloth of Gold and the hosts of the Renaissance: Cyrano de
Bergerac and Francois Villon leading the ragamuffin procession; the
jades of the Fronde, Longueville, Chevreuse and fair-haired Anne of
Austria; and Ninon, too, and Manon; and the never-to-be-forgotten Four,
'one for all and all for one;' Cagliostro and Monte Cristo; on the side,
Rabelais taking