so there is
to be a procession to the Barriere de l'Etoile. I have been there since
morning, and reached the city only in time to come here. So, you see, I
am edifyingly ignorant of the latest news."

"Then I have to inform you that there is to be no banquet after all."

"No banquet! Why, I thought it was compromised between Guizot and Barrot
that the banquet should be allowed to proceed under protest, in order
that the question might be brought before the Supreme Court."

"Such was the purpose, but a manifesto of the Banquet Committee, drawn
up by Marrast, it is said, and, at all events, issued in 'Le National'
this morning, declaring the design not only of a banquet, but of a
procession, changed everything. The address sets forth that all invited
to the banquet would assemble at the Place de la Madeleine to-morrow at
about noon, and thence, escorted by the National Guard, and accompanied
by the students of the universities, should proceed by the Place de la
Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe, at the extremity of the Avenue des
Champs Elysees, and thence to the immense pavilion on the grounds of
General Shian. Only one toast, 'Reform, and the right to assemble,' was
announced to be drunk, and then a commissary of police could enter a
formal protest against the whole proceeding on the spot, on which to
base a legal prosecution, and the multitude would disperse."

"A very sensible mode of procedure," quietly remarked the journalist,
"and one eminently calculated to relieve your friend Guizot and my
friend Barrot from the awkward dilemma of a direct issue."

"But so thought not my friend Guizot. Like his oracle, the sage
Montesquieu, he thought, 'Who assembles the people causes them to
revolt.' He took fright at the manifesto, as he was pleased to dignify
the simple programme in this morning's 'National,' and so, early in the
sitting, it was announced that the reform banquet was utterly prohibited
by M. Delessert, Prefect of Police, on the express injunction and
responsibility of M. Duchatel, Minister of the Interior, by and with the
advice of M. Hebert, Minister of Justice."

"Ha! and what said Odillon Barrot?" cried the journalist.

"He--why he said nothing at all, but immediately retired at the head of
the opposition from the Chamber."

"To consult?"

"Of course. An hour after, they returned in a body two hundred and fifty
strong, with Barrot at their head, who at once mounted the tribune and
denounced the despo