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s leaned from the windows as we passed along,--some staring in stupid wonderment at our appearance; others saluting us with mockery and grimace, or even calling out to us in the slang dialect of the place. "Yes," said Duchesne, as he saw the expression of horror and disgust the scene impressed on me, "here are the rotting seeds of revolutions putrefying, to germinate at some future day. Starvation and vice, misery, even to despair, inhabit every den around you. The furious and bloodthirsty wretch of '92, the Chouan, the Jacobite, the escaped galley-slave, the untaken murderer, are here side by side,--crime their great bond of union. To this place men come for an assassin or a false witness, as to a market. Such are the wrecks the retiring waves of a Revolution have left us. So long as the trade of blood lasted, openly, like vultures, they fattened on it; but once the reign of order restored, they were driven to murder and outrage as a livelihood." While he was speaking, we approached a narrow arched passage, within which a flight of stone steps arose. "We dismount here," said he. At the same moment a group of ragged creatures, of every age, surrounded us to hold our horses, not noticing the orderly who rode at some distance behind us. I followed Duchesne up the steps, and along a gloomy corridor, to a little courtyard, where several dismounted gendarmes were standing in a circle, chatting. Passing through this, we entered a dirty, mean-looking house, around the door of which several people were collected, some of whom saluted the chevalier as he came up. "Who are these fellows?" said I. "They seem to know you." "Oh! nothing but the common police spies," said he, carelessly; "the fellows who lounge about the cabarets and the low gambling-houses. But here comes one of higher mark." As he spoke, he laid his hand on the arm of a tall, powerful-looking man, in a blouse; he wore immense whiskers, and a great beard, descending far below his chin. "Ah! Bocquin, what have we got going forward to-day? I came to show a young friend here the interior of your _salle_." "Monsieur le Capitaine, your most obedient," said the man, in a deep voice, as he removed his casquette, and bowed ceremoniously to us; "and yours also, Monsieur," added he, turning to me. "Why, there is nothing to speak of, save that duel, Capitaine." "Come, come, Bocquin; no nonsense with me. What was that story got up for?" "Ah! you mistake ther
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