lilies of France, delicately
tinted. Of course, this could not have happened if there had been the
least wind, but the air was so still that the vibration of the
cheering caused the huge lily to tremble gently as it stood there
marvellously poised; the lily of peace, surrounded by the lilies of
France! That was the design, and if you ask me how it was done, I can
only refer you to my pyrotechnist, and say that whatever a Frenchman
attempts to do he will accomplish artistically.

And now these imperturbable English, who had been seated immobile when
they thought a bomb was thrown, stood up in their carriages to get a
better view of this aerial phenomenon, cheering and waving their hats.
The lily gradually thinned and dissolved in little patches of cloud
that floated away above our heads.

'I cannot stay here longer,' groaned Simard, quaking, his nerves, like
himself, in rags. 'I see the ghosts of those I have killed floating
around me.'

'Come on, then, but do not hurry.'

There was no difficulty in getting him to London, but it was absinthe,
absinthe, all the way, and when we reached Charing Cross, I was
compelled to help him, partly insensible, into a cab. I took him
direct to Imperial Flats, and up into my own set of chambers, where I
opened my strong room, and flung him inside to sleep off his
intoxication, and subsist on bread and water when he became sober.

I attended that night a meeting of the anarchists, and detailed
accurately the story of our escape from France. I knew we had been
watched, and so skipped no detail. I reported that I had taken Simard
directly to my compatriot's flat; to Eugene Valmont, the man who had
given me employment, and who had promised to do what he could for
Simard, beginning by trying to break him of the absinthe habit, as he
was now a physical wreck through over-indulgence in that stimulant.

It was curious to note the discussion which took place a few nights
afterwards regarding the failure of the picric bomb. Scientists among
us said that the bomb had been made too long; that a chemical reaction
had taken place which destroyed its power. A few superstitious ones
saw a miracle in what had happened, and they forthwith left our
organisation. Then again, things were made easier by the fact that the
man who constructed the bomb, evidently terror-stricken at what he had
done, disappeared the day before the procession, and has never since
been heard of. The majority of the anarchis