in a corner, and the
commandant, de la Faisanderie, having arrived, ordered them to be
escorted to the "Violin." If I had been able to get down, I should
have run to the rescue, without thinking of Catherine or Aunt Gredel or
Mr. Goulden, and they might have killed me too. When I think of it now
even, I tremble, but fortunately the wall of the postern was twenty
feet thick, and when I saw them carried away covered with blood, and
comprehended the whole horrible affair, I ran home by way of the
arsenal, where I arrived so pale that Father Goulden exclaimed:

"Why, Joseph! have you been hurt?"

"No, no," I replied, "but I have seen a frightful thing." And I
commenced to cry as I told him of the affair. He walked up and down
with his hands behind his back, stopping from time to time to listen to
me, while his lips contracted and his eyes sparkled.

"Joseph," said he, "these men provoked them?"

"No, Mr. Goulden."

"It is impossible, they must have invited it. The devil! we are not
savages! The rascals must have had some other reason than the cockades
for attacking them!"

He could not believe me, and it was only after telling him all the
details twice over that he said at last:

"Well! since you saw it with your own eyes I must believe you. But it
is a greater misfortune than you think, Joseph. If this goes on, if
they do not put a strong check on these good-for-nothings, if the
Pinacles are to have the upper hand, honest people will open their
eyes."

He said no more, for the procession was finished and Aunt Gredel and
Catherine had come.

We dined together, aunt was happy and Catherine too, but even the
pleasure it gave me to see them, could not make me forget what I had
witnessed, and Mr. Goulden was very grave too.

At night, I went with them to the "Roulette," and then I embraced them
and bade them good-night. It might have been eight o'clock, and I went
home immediately. Mr. Goulden had gone to the "Homme Sauvage" brewery,
as was his habit on Sunday, to read the gazette, and I went to bed. He
came in about ten, and seeing my candle burning on the table, he pushed
open the door and said:

"It seems that they are having processions everywhere. You see nothing
else in the gazette." And he added that twenty thousand prisoners had
returned, and that it was a happy thing for the country.

V

The next morning all the clocks in the village were to be wound up, and
as Mr. Goulden was grow