As to be ill disposed meant danger if not death, several men within
hearing at once came forward.

"This female citizen is an aristocrat in disguise," he went on,
pointing to Marie; "in virtue of my office as deputy of Dijon and
member of the Committee of Public Safety, I arrest her and give
her into your charge. Where is the person who was with her? Seize
her also on a charge of harbouring an enemy of the state!"

But Louise was gone. The moment Lebat had looked round in search
of assistance Marie had whispered in Louise's ear: "Fly, Louise,
for the sake of the children; if you are arrested they are lost!"

Had she herself been alone concerned, the old woman would have stood
by Marie and shared her fate; but the words "for the sake of the
children" decided her, and she had instantly slipped away among
the crowd, whose attention had been called by Lebat's first words,
and dived into a small shop, where she at once began to bargain
for some eggs.

"Where is the woman?" Lebat repeated angrily.

"What is she like?" one of the bystanders asked.

But Lebat could give no description whatever of her. He had noticed
that Marie was speaking to some one when he first caught sight of
her face; but he had noticed nothing more, and did not know whether
the woman was young or old.

"I can't tell you," he said in a tone of vexation. "Never mind; we
shall find her later on. This capture is the most important."

So saying he set out, with Marie walking beside him, with a guard
on either hand. In the next street he came on a party of four of
the armed soldiers of the Commune, and ordered them to take the
place of those he had first charged with the duty, and directed
them to proceed with him to the Maine.

Marie was taken at once before the committee sitting en permanence
for the discovery and arrest of suspects.

"I charge this young woman with being an aristocrat in disguise.
She is the daughter of the ci-devant Marquis de St. Caux, who was
executed on the 2d of September at Bicetre."

"Murdered, you mean, sir," Marie said in a clear haughty voice.
"Why not call things by their proper name?"

"I am sorry," Lebat went on, not heeding the interruption, "that
it should fall to my lot to denounce her, for I acknowledge that
in the days before our glorious Revolution commenced I have visited
at her father's chateau. But I feel that my duty to the republic
stands before any private considerations."

"You have done perfec