the statues of the dome
of the Invalides had been temporarily deposited, and had "prigged" some
lead from them; a third, because he had seen a diligence tip over; still
another, because he "knew" a soldier who came near putting out the eye
of a citizen.

This explains that famous exclamation of a Parisian gamin, a profound
epiphonema, which the vulgar herd laughs at without comprehending,--Dieu
de Dieu! What ill-luck I do have! to think that I have never yet seen
anybody tumble from a fifth-story window! (I have pronounced I'ave and
fifth pronounced fift'.)

Surely, this saying of a peasant is a fine one: "Father So-and-So, your
wife has died of her malady; why did you not send for the doctor?"
"What would you have, sir, we poor folks die of ourselves." But if
the peasant's whole passivity lies in this saying, the whole of the
free-thinking anarchy of the brat of the faubourgs is, assuredly,
contained in this other saying. A man condemned to death is listening
to his confessor in the tumbrel. The child of Paris exclaims: "He is
talking to his black cap! Oh, the sneak!"

A certain audacity on matters of religion sets off the gamin. To be
strong-minded is an important item.

To be present at executions constitutes a duty. He shows himself at the
guillotine, and he laughs. He calls it by all sorts of pet names: The
End of the Soup, The Growler, The Mother in the Blue (the sky), The Last
Mouthful, etc., etc. In order not to lose anything of the affair, he
scales the walls, he hoists himself to balconies, he ascends trees, he
suspends himself to gratings, he clings fast to chimneys. The gamin is
born a tiler as he is born a mariner. A roof inspires him with no more
fear than a mast. There is no festival which comes up to an execution
on the Place de Greve. Samson and the Abbe Montes are the truly popular
names. They hoot at the victim in order to encourage him. They sometimes
admire him. Lacenaire, when a gamin, on seeing the hideous Dautin die
bravely, uttered these words which contain a future: "I was jealous of
him." In the brotherhood of gamins Voltaire is not known, but Papavoine
is. "Politicians" are confused with assassins in the same legend.
They have a tradition as to everybody's last garment. It is known that
Tolleron had a fireman's cap, Avril an otter cap, Losvel a round hat,
that old Delaporte was bald and bare-headed, that Castaing was all ruddy
and very handsome, that Bories had a romantic small beard, tha