cer of the Spahis, and she in her own
magnificent beauty, fitly garbed.

M. Dantes was received with marked respect by the knot of Republicans as
he approached.

"I am delighted to meet you all, and to meet you to-night, or, rather,
this morning," said Dantes, warmly, "in order that I may render you an
account of my stewardship for the past six hours. They have been hours
big with fate; and the first day of Republican France has already
commenced. Messieurs, we can no longer remain blind to the fact that the
long looked for--hoped for--expected hour has come--the hour to
strike--strike home for liberty and for France! To-morrow the streets of
Paris will swarm with blouses!--the Marseillaise will be
heard!--barricades rise!--the Ministry be impeached! Next day the
National Guards will fraternize with the people!--blood will flow!--the
Ministry resign! On the third, the King abdicates!--the Tuileries are
surrendered!--a Regency is refused!--a Republic is declared! And this
day, two weeks hence, liberty will be shouted in the streets of Vienna
and Berlin, and every throne in Europe will tremble! The honors of
prophecy are easily won," continued the speaker, with a significant
smile that lighted up his features, pale with enthusiasm and exhaustion,
"when the problem of seventeen years approaches solution with
mathematical certainty!"

"Are our plans all complete?" asked Louis Blanc.

"So far as human forethought or power could render them so, our efforts
have, I trust, been effectual," was the reply. "Yet the events of every
hour will induce changes, and render indispensable policy now undreamed
of. Ah! Messieurs, we must none of us sleep now! Not a moment must
escape our vigilance! Not an advantage must be sacrificed! We can afford
to lose nothing! Without leaders, the people are blind! Not, for an
instant, must they be abandoned! To-morrow, let the masses gather at
different points! Next day let barricades choke the Boulevards; and, if
the conflict come not, be it precipitated--provoked! Thursday, an
hundred thousand men must invest the Tuileries, and a Provisional
Government be declared in the Chamber of Deputies! The Bourbons will
then be in full flight, and France will be free! And now, Messieurs,
will you permit me to suggest the propriety of our separation? Yonder
Ministerial Secretary has had his eye upon us ever since he entered."

The expediency of the suggestion of M. Dantes was at once perceived; the
consp