isabled ship. The combatants, as they went
and came, moved about there like black forms. Above that terrible
nesting-place of gloom the stories of the mute houses were lividly
outlined; at the very top, the chimneys stood palely out. The sky was of
that charming, undecided hue, which may be white and may be blue. Birds
flew about in it with cries of joy. The lofty house which formed the
back of the barricade, being turned to the East, had upon its roof a
rosy reflection. The morning breeze ruffled the gray hair on the head of
the dead man at the third-story window.

"I am delighted that the torch has been extinguished," said Courfeyrac
to Feuilly. "That torch flickering in the wind annoyed me. It had the
appearance of being afraid. The light of torches resembles the wisdom of
cowards; it gives a bad light because it trembles."

Dawn awakens minds as it does the birds; all began to talk.

Joly, perceiving a cat prowling on a gutter, extracted philosophy from
it.

"What is the cat?" he exclaimed. "It is a corrective. The good God,
having made the mouse, said: 'Hullo! I have committed a blunder.' And
so he made the cat. The cat is the erratum of the mouse. The mouse, plus
the cat, is the proof of creation revised and corrected."

Combeferre, surrounded by students and artisans, was speaking of the
dead, of Jean Prouvaire, of Bahorel, of Mabeuf, and even of Cabuc, and
of Enjolras' sad severity. He said:--

"Harmodius and Aristogiton, Brutus, Chereas, Stephanus, Cromwell,
Charlotte Corday, Sand, have all had their moment of agony when it was
too late. Our hearts quiver so, and human life is such a mystery that,
even in the case of a civic murder, even in a murder for liberation, if
there be such a thing, the remorse for having struck a man surpasses the
joy of having served the human race."

And, such are the windings of the exchange of speech, that, a moment
later, by a transition brought about through Jean Prouvaire's verses,
Combeferre was comparing the translators of the Georgics, Raux with
Cournand, Cournand with Delille, pointing out the passages translated
by Malfilatre, particularly the prodigies of Caesar's death; and at that
word, Caesar, the conversation reverted to Brutus.

"Caesar," said Combeferre, "fell justly. Cicero was severe towards
Caesar, and he was right. That severity is not diatribe. When Zoilus
insults Homer, when Maevius insults Virgil, when Vise insults Moliere,
when Pope insults Shakspear