conduct them to the municipal authorities. There, they underwent a fresh
examination, and Coursegol responded as before. As people who desired to
enter Paris at such a time could hardly be regarded with suspicion,
Coursegol and Dolores were walking freely about the streets of the city
a few moments later, surprised and alarmed at the sights that met their
eyes at every turn. The last witnesses of the grand revolutionary drama
are disappearing every day. Age has bowed their heads, blanched their
locks and enfeebled their memories. Soon there will remain none of those
whose testimony might aid the historian of that stormy time in his
search after truth; but among the few who still survive and who in the
year 1792 were old enough to see and understand and remember, there are
none upon whom the recollection of those terrible days in September is
not indelibly imprinted. Since the tenth of August, Paris had been
delivered up to frenzy and bloodshed. The arrest of the royal family,
the rivalry between the Commune and the Convention, the bitter debates
at the clubs and the uprising of the volunteers were more than enough to
throw the great city into a state of excitement, disorder and terror.
Business was paralyzed; the stores were for the most part closed; the
aristocratic portions of the city deserted; emigration had deprived
France of thousands of her citizens; the streets were filled with a
fierce, ragged crowd; the luxury upon which the artisan depended for a
livelihood was proscribed; famine was knocking at the gates; gold had
disappeared; places of amusement were broken up; the gardens and the
galleries of the Palais-Royal alone remained--the only rendezvous
accessible to those who, even while looking forward to death,
frantically desired to enjoy the little of life that remained. Such was
the aspect of affairs in Paris.

With the last days of August came the news of the capture of Longwy by
the Prussians, the siege of Terdun, and the warlike preparations of
Russia and Germany. This was more than enough to excite the terror of
the Parisians and to arouse their anger against those whom they called
aristocrats and whom they accused of complicity with the enemies of the
nation.

On the 29th of August, by the order of the Commune, the gates were
closed. It was impossible to enter Paris without a passport endorsed by
examiners appointed for the purpose. No one was allowed to leave the
city on any pretext whatever. The Pari