passionately, "I will avenge you. I
will go out through the outposts and will find my way to Versailles, and
I will kill William or Bismarck. They may kill me afterwards, I care
nothing for that. Charlotte Corday was a reactionist, but she slew Marat
and died calmly and bravely. I could do as much and would to revenge
you."

"I hope you would not attempt anything so mad, Minette. Of course, I
must take my chance as everyone else will do, and the Prussians will be
no more to blame if one of their bullets killed me than if it had struck
anyone else. Everyone who goes into a battle has to run his chances. I
had an elder brother killed in the civil war we had in the States. I
have no great love for the North, but I do not blame them especially for
the death of my brother. There were a great number killed on both sides,
and that he should be among them was the fortune of war. But it is
bitterly cold, Minette; let us be walking. I am glad we are not on
outpost duty to-night. I put on so many flannel shirts that I can hardly
button my tunic over them, but in spite of that it is cold work standing
with one's hands on one's trigger looking out into the darkness. It is
quite a relief when a rifle rings out either from our side or the
other. Then for a bit everyone is alive and active, we think the
Prussians are advancing, and they think we are, and we both blaze away
merrily for a bit. Then there is a lull again, and perhaps an hour or
two of dreary waiting till there is a fresh alarm. As soon as we are
relieved, we hurry off to our quarter, where there is sure to be a fire
blazing. Then we heat up the coffee in our canteens, pouring in a little
spirits, and are soon warm again."

"I cannot see why they don't form corps of women, Arnold; we have just
as much at stake as the men have, and I am sure we should be quite as
brave as the most of them, a great deal braver than the National Guard."

"I have no doubt you would, dear, but it will be quite time for you to
fight when all the men are used up. What the women ought to do is to
drive the men outside the walls. If the women were to arm themselves
with mops soaked in dirty water, and were to attack every man under
forty they found lurking in the streets, they would soon make a change
in things. You should begin in your own quarter first, for although they
are always denouncing the bourgeois for not fighting, I cannot see that
there is any more eagerness to go out at Montmartre t