e lineal descendant of a house, noble before the Crusades,
or--the humble _bourgeoise_ of the Quartier St. Denis. What peculiar
line of political action my father followed I am unable to say, nor
whether he was suspected with or without due cause; but suspected he
certainly was, and at a time when suspicion was all-sufficient for
conviction. He was arrested, and thrown into the Temple, where I
remember I used to visit him every week; and whence I accompanied him
one morning, as he was led forth with a string of others to the Place
de Greve, to be guillotined. I believe he was accused of royalism; and
I know that a white cockade was found among his effects, and in mockery
was fastened on his shoulder on the day of his execution. This emblem,
deep dyed with blood, and still dripping, was taken up by a bystander,
and pinned on my cap, with the savage observation, 'Voila, it is the
proper colour; see that you profit by the way it became so.' As, with
a bursting heart, and a head wild with terror, I turned to find my way
homeward, I felt my hand grasped by another--I looked up, and saw an old
man, whose threadbare black clothes and emaciated appearance bespoke the
priest in the times of the Convention.

'You have no home now, my poor boy,' said he to me; 'come and share
mine.'

I did not ask him why. I seemed to have suddenly become reckless as to
everything present or future. The terrible scene I had witnessed had
dried up all the springs of my youthful heart; and, infant as I was, I
was already a sceptic as to everything good or generous in human nature.
I followed him, therefore, without a word, and we walked on, leaving the
thoroughfares and seeking the less frequented streets, till we arrived
in what seemed a suburban part of Paris--at least the houses were
surrounded with trees and shrubs; and at a distance I could see the
hill of Montmartre and its windmills--objects well known to me by many a
Sunday visit.

Even after my own home, the poverty of the Pere Michel's household
was most remarkable: he had but one small room, of which a miserable
settle-bed, two chairs, and a table constituted all the furniture; there
was no fireplace, a little pan for charcoal supplying the only means
for warmth or cookery; a crucifix and a few coloured prints of saints
decorated the whitewashed walls; and, with a string of wooden beads,
a cloth skull-cap, and a bracket with two or three books, made up the
whole inventory of his posses