emple at Jerusalem. Companionism (to coin a word) still exists in
France among the people. Its traditions, powerful over minds that are
not enlightened, and over men not educated enough to cast aside an oath,
might serve the ends of formidable enterprises if some rough-hewn genius
were to seize hold of these diverse associations. All the instruments
of this Companionism are well-nigh blind. From town to town there has
existed from time immemorial, for the use of Companions, an "Obade,"--a
sort of halting-place, kept by a "Mother," an old woman, half-gypsy,
with nothing to lose, knowing everything that happens in her
neighborhood, and devoted, either from fear or habit, to the tribe,
whose straggling members she feeds and lodges. This people, ever moving
and changing, though controlled by immutable customs, has its eyes
everywhere, executes, without judging it, a WILL,--for the oldest
Companion still belongs to an era when men had faith. Moreover,
the whole body professes doctrines that are sufficiently true and
sufficiently mysterious to electrify into a sort of tribal loyalty all
adepts whenever they obtain even a slight development. The attachment
of the Companions to their laws is so passionate that the diverse
tribes will fight sanguinary battles with each other in defence of some
question of principle.

Happily for our present public safety, when a Devorant is ambitious, he
builds houses, lays by his money, and leaves the Order. There is many
a curious thing to tell about the "Compagnons du Devoir" [Companions of
the Duty], the rivals of the Devorants, and about the different sects
of working-men, their usages, their fraternity, and the bond existing
between them and the free-masons. But such details would be out of place
here. The author must, however, add that under the old monarchy it was
not an unknown thing to find a "Trempe-la-Soupe" enslaved to the king
sentenced for a hundred and one years to the galleys, but ruling his
tribe from there, religiously consulted by it, and when he escaped from
his galley, certain of help, succor, and respect, wherever he might be.
To see its grand master at the galleys is, to the faithful tribe, only
one of those misfortunes for which providence is responsible, and which
does not release the Devorants from obeying a power created by them to
be above them. It is but the passing exile of their legitimate king,
always a king for them. Thus we see the romantic prestige attaching to