he Faubourg Saint-Marceau kept up an equal buzzing with the
Faubourg Saint-Antoine, and the schools were no less moved than the
faubourgs. A cafe in the Rue Saint-Hyacinthe and the wine-shop of the
Seven Billiards, Rue des Mathurins-Saint-Jacques, served as rallying
points for the students. The Society of the Friends of the A B C
affiliated to the Mutualists of Angers, and to the Cougourde of Aix,
met, as we have seen, in the Cafe Musain. These same young men assembled
also, as we have stated already, in a restaurant wine-shop of the Rue
Mondetour which was called Corinthe. These meetings were secret. Others
were as public as possible, and the reader can judge of their boldness
from these fragments of an interrogatory undergone in one of the
ulterior prosecutions: "Where was this meeting held?" "In the Rue de la
Paix." "At whose house?" "In the street." "What sections were there?"
"Only one." "Which?" "The Manuel section." "Who was its leader?"
"I." "You are too young to have decided alone upon the bold course of
attacking the government. Where did your instructions come from?" "From
the central committee."

The army was mined at the same time as the population, as was proved
subsequently by the operations of Beford, Luneville, and Epinard. They
counted on the fifty-second regiment, on the fifth, on the eighth, on
the thirty-seventh, and on the twentieth light cavalry. In Burgundy and
in the southern towns they planted the liberty tree; that is to say, a
pole surmounted by a red cap.

Such was the situation.

The Faubourg Saint-Antoine, more than any other group of the population,
as we stated in the beginning, accentuated this situation and made
it felt. That was the sore point. This old faubourg, peopled like
an ant-hill, laborious, courageous, and angry as a hive of bees, was
quivering with expectation and with the desire for a tumult. Everything
was in a state of agitation there, without any interruption, however, of
the regular work. It is impossible to convey an idea of this lively yet
sombre physiognomy. In this faubourg exists poignant distress hidden
under attic roofs; there also exist rare and ardent minds. It is
particularly in the matter of distress and intelligence that it is
dangerous to have extremes meet.

The Faubourg Saint-Antoine had also other causes to tremble; for it
received the counter-shock of commercial crises, of failures, strikes,
slack seasons, all inherent to great political disturbance