gh. They got scent of what was coming, and sent them over as quickly
as they could. Truly they are a great nation--of shopkeepers!" I was
reminded of Beranger's scapegrace, when he was accused of being drunk.

"Qu'est que cela me fait, a moi?
Que l'on m'appelle ivrogne?"

he sings.

As the afternoon wore on, the excitement increased; the news from the
Boulevards became alarming, and at about three o'clock the company
marched away. As a matter of course we followed, and equally, as a
matter of course, did not leave them until 2.30 next morning. Casualties
to report. A large scratch in one of the drummer's cheeks, made by an
oyster-shell, flung at the company as it turned round the corner of the
Rue de Clery. No battles, no skirmishes, a great deal of fraternizing
with "le peuple souverain," whom, in their own employ, the well-to-do
tradesmen would have ordered about like so many mangy curs.

From that day forth I have never dipped into any history of modern
France, professing to deal with the political causes and effects of the
various upheavals during the nineteenth century in France. They may be
worth reading; I do not say that they are not. I have preferred to look
at the men who instigated those disorders, and have come to the
conclusion that, had each of them been born with five or ten thousand a
year, their names would have been absolutely wanting in connection with
them. This does not mean that the disorders would not have taken place,
but they would have always been led by men in want of five or ten
thousand a year. On the other hand, if the D'Orleans family had been
less wealthy than they are there would have been no firmly settled third
republic; if Louis-Napoleon had been less poor, there would, in all
probability, have been no second empire; if the latter had lasted
another year, we should have found Gambetta among the ministers of
Napoleon III., just like Emile Ollivier, of the "light heart." "Les
convictions politiques en France sont basees sur le fait que le louis
d'or vaut sept fois plus que l'ecu de trois francs." This is the dictum
of a man who never wished to be anything, who steadfastly refused all
offers to enter the arena of public life.

My friend and I had been baulked of the drama we expected--for we
frankly confessed to one another that the utter annihilation of that
company of National Guards would have left us perfectly unmoved,--and
got instead, a kind of first act of a military spe