oclamation.

The fellows of the municipal guard fell to and tore the parchment away
from the door whilst the crowd looked on with stupid amazement.

What did it all mean?

Then Auguste Moleux turned and faced the men.

"Mes enfants," he said, "my little cabbages! wake up! the government of
the Republic has decreed that to-day is to be a day of gaiety and public
rejoicings!"

"Gaiety?... Public rejoicings forsooth, when the bread-winner of every
family..."

"Hush! Hush! Be silent, all of you," quoth Auguste impatiently, "you do
not understand!... All that is at an end... There is no fear that the
woman shall escape.... You are all to dance and rejoice.... The Scarlet
Pimpernel has been captured in Boulogne, last night..."

"Qui ca the Scarlet Pimpernel?"

"Mais! 'tis that mysterious English adventurer who rescued people from
the guillotine!"

"A hero? quoi?"

"No! no! only an English spy, a friend of aristocrats... he would have
cared nothing for the bread-winners of Boulogne..."

"He would not have raised a finger to save them."

"Who knows?" sighed a feminine voice, "perhaps he came to Boulogne to
help them."

"And he has been caught anyway," concluded Auguste Moleux sententiously,
"and, my little cabbages, remember this, that so great is the pleasure
of the all-powerful Committee of Public Safety at this capture, that
because he has been caught in Boulogne, therefore Boulogne is to be
specially rewarded!"

"Holy Virgin, who'd have thought it?"

"Sh... Jeanette, dost not know that there's no Holy Virgin now?"

"And dost know, Auguste, how we are to be rewarded?"

It is a difficult matter for the human mind to turn very quickly from
despair to hope, and the fisherman of Boulogne had not yet grasped the
fact that they were to make merry and that thoughts of anxiety must be
abandoned for those of gaiety.

Auguste Moleux took out a parchment from the capacious pocket of his
coat; he put on his most solemn air of officialdom, and pointing with
extended forefinger to the parchment, he said:

"A general amnesty to all natives of Boulogne who are under arrest at
the present moment: a free pardon to all natives of Boulogne who are
under sentence of death: permission to all natives of Boulogne to quit
the town with their families, to embark on any vessel they please, in
or out of the harbour, and to go whithersoever they choose, without
passports, formalities or question of any kind."

Dead silence fol