ritten by George Sand. The seventh is one of these, and also the
twelfth. The latter was written with a view to drawing the attention
of the public to the wretched lot of the women and girls of the lower
classes, who were reduced to prostitution by the lowness of their wages.
Their virginity is an object of traffic," we are told, "quoted on the
exchange of infamy." The sixteenth _Bulletin_ was simply an appeal for
revolt. George Sand was looking ahead to what ought to take place, in
case the elections did not lead to the triumph of social truth. "The
people," she hoped, "would know their duty. There would, in that case,
be only one way of salvation for the people who had erected barricades,
and that would be to manifest their will a second time, and so adjourn
the decisions of a representation that was not national." This was
nothing more nor less than the language of another Fructidor. And we
know what was the result of words in those days. The _Bulletin_ was
dated the 15th, and on the 17th the people were on the way to the Hotel
de Ville. These popular movements cannot always be trusted, though, as
they frequently take an unexpected turn, and even change their direction
when on the way. It happened this time that the manifestation turned
against those who were its instigators. Shouts were heard that day in
Paris of _"Death to the Communists"_ and _"Down with Cabet_." George
Sand could not understand things at all. This was not in the programme,
and she began to have her doubts about the future of the Republic--the
real one, that of her friends.

It was much worse on the 15th of May, the day which was so fatal to
Barbes, for he played the part of hero and of dupe on that eventful day.
Barbes was George Sand's idol at that time.

It was impossible for her to be without one, although, with her vivid
imagination, she changed her idols frequently. With her idealism, she
was always incarnating in some individual the perfections that she was
constantly imagining. It seems as though she exteriorized the needs of
her own mind and put them into an individual who seemed suitable to
her for the particular requirements of that moment. At the time of the
monarchy, Michel of Bourges and Pierre Leroux had been able to play the
part, the former of a radical theorician and the latter of the mystical
forerunner of the new times. At present Barbes had come on to the scene.

He was a born conspirator, the very man for secret societies. H