e thus spent with the luxurious
existence of the pampered 'rich.' Such were the first steps of one who
journeyed afterward far in crime--such the initial teachings of one who
subsequently helped mainly to corrupt a whole people.

A strange impulse of curiosity to see something of these men of whom he
had heard so much, influenced Gerald, while he was also in part swayed
by the marvellous force of that torrent which never ceased to flow from
Marat's lips. It was a sort of fascination, not the less strong that it
imparted a sense of pain.

'I will see this night's adventure to the end,' said he to himself, and
he went along with them.

CHAPTER VII. A SUPPER WITH THE 'FRIENDS OF THE PEOPLE'

There is a strange similarity between the moral and the physical evils
of life, which extends even to the modes by which they are propagated.
We talk of the infection of a fever, but we often forget that prejudices
are infinitely more infectious. The poor man, ill-fed, ill-housed,
ill-clad, destitute, heart-sick, and weary, falls victim to the first
epidemic that crosses his path. So with the youth of unfixed faith
and unsettled pursuits: he adopts any creed of thought or opinion warm
enough to stimulate his imagination and fix his ambition. How few are
they in life who have chosen for themselves their political convictions;
what a vast majority is it that has adopted the impressions that float
around them!

Gerald Fitzgerald supped with Marat at the Rue de Moulins: he sat down
with Fauchet, Etienne, Chaptal, Favart and the rest--all writers for the
_Ami du Peuple_--all henchmen of the one great and terrible leader.

Gerald had often taken his part in the wild excesses of a youthful
origin; he had borne a share in those scenes where passion stimulated
by debauch becomes madness, and where a frantic impetuosity usurps the
place of all reason and judgment; but it was new to him to witness a
scene where the excesses were those of minds worked up by the wildest
nights of political ambition, the frantic denunciations of political
adversaries, and the maddest anticipations of a dreadful vengeance. They
talked before him with a freedom which, in that time, was rarely heard.
They never scrupled to discuss all the chances of their party, and the
casualties of that eventful future that lay before them.

How the monarchy must fall--how the whole social edifice of France must
be overthrown--how nobility was to be annihilated, and a ne