k and cold without, Armand; the winter wind howls
dismally along the streets, the sleet freezes as it falls and the
furious blast almost extinguishes the torches by which, at the corners
and at the cafes, the different manifestoes of the day are being read to
the eager throngs, on whose faces, in the flare of the blood-red light,
can be perceived the fury of their hearts. The people, at length, are
ripe! To-morrow all Paris will be in arms!"

While Ledru Rollin was thus speaking, Louis Blanc entered and quietly
approached, courteously saluting his acquaintances on his way, and
stopping to exchange a few words with Madame Dantes, who inquired with
considerable anxiety for her husband.

"I have this moment left him, Madame," said Louis Blanc. "Be assured, he
is safe and well. Ah! how glorious to be an object of solicitude to one
like you!" he added, with a smile.

The lady smiled also, and offered an appropriate jest in reply to the
gallantry of the distinguished author, as he moved on to join his
friends.

"The Ministry provokes its fate!" he said, in a low tone, as he
approached. "'Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.' These
men suffered seventy reform banquets all over France. The seventy-first
one they prohibit, and that, too, by the exhumation of an old despotic
edict of 1790. This is exactly what we would have. It was the first, not
the last banquet they should have suppressed. Barrot was right to-day,
in the Chamber, when he said that had this manifestation been suffered
the people would have become tranquil."

"Tranquil, indeed!" cried Ledru Rollin. "That's exactly what we have
apprehended! No--no--it is too late! This Reform Banquet was, at first,
but an insignificant thing. In it we now recognize the commencement of a
revolution. The various announcements and postponements of this banquet
have caused an agitation among the masses favorable to our wishes, and
the threats and obstinacy of the Ministry have completed the work. The
hopes, fears, doubts and disappointments attending this affair have put
the mind of all Paris in a ferment, and excited passions of which we may
take immediate advantage."

"Aye!" cried Louis Blanc, "we may now do what I have always wished and
counseled--we, the Communists, may now take advantage of a movement, in
the origin or inception of which we had no hand."

"True, most true!" observed Marrast; "this is the work of the
Dynastics--Thiers, Barrot and the rest--the