right. Dulac said to him, "You scarcely
know me, Citizen Schoelcher, but I love you. Let me have the charge of
remaining by your side. I only belong to the second rank in the
Assembly, but I want to be in the first rank of the battle."

At this moment some men in blouses, those whom the Second of December
had enlisted, appeared at the corner of the Rue Ste. Marguerite, close
to the barricade, and shouted, "Down with the 'Twenty-five francs!'"

Baudin who had already selected his post for the combat, and who was
standing on the barricade, looked fixedly at these men, and said to
them,--

"You shall see how one can die for 'twenty-five francs!'"

There was a noise in the street. Some few doors which had remained half
opened were closed. The two attacking columns had arrived in sight of
the barricade. Further on could be seen confusedly other lines of
bayonets. They were those which had barred my passage.

Schoelcher, raising his arm with authority, signed to the captain, who
commanded the first squad, to halt.

The captain made a negative sign with his sword. The whole of the Second
of December was in these two gestures. The Law said, "Halt!" The Sabre
answered, "No!"

The two companies continued to advance, but slowly, and keeping at the
same distance from each other.

Schoelcher came down from the barricade into the street. De Flotte,
Dulac, Malardier, Brillier, Maigne, and Bruckner followed him.

Then was seen a grand spectacle.

Seven Representatives of the People, armed only with their sashes, that
is to say, majestically clothed with Law and Right, advanced in the
street beyond the barricade, and marched straight to the soldiers, who
awaited them with their guns pointed at them.

The other Representatives who had remained at the barricade made their
last preparations for resistance. The combatants maintained an intrepid
bearing. The Naval Lieutenant Cournet towered above them all with his
tall stature. Baudin, still standing on the overturned omnibus, leaned
half over the barricade.

On seeing the Representatives approach, the soldiers and their officers
were for the moment bewildered. Meanwhile the captain signed to the
Representatives to stop.

They stopped, and Schoelcher said in an impressive voice,--

"Soldiers! we are the Representatives of the Sovereign People, we are
your Representatives, we are the Elect of Universal Suffrage. In the
name of the Constitution, in the name of Universal Suffra