keep my hat on in
the theatre. But they ------ these ------s!"

"He is right," said Le Chapelier. "The thing has become unendurable,
insufferable. Two days ago M. d'Ambly threatened Mirabeau with his
cane before the whole Assembly. Yesterday M. de Faussigny leapt up and
harangued his order by inviting murder. 'Why don't we fall on these
scoundrels, sword in hand?' he asked. Those were his very words: 'Why
don't we fall on these scoundrels, sword in hand.'"

"It is so much simpler than lawmaking," said Andre-Louis.

"Lagron, the deputy from Ancenis in the Loire, said something that
we did not hear in answer. As he was leaving the Manege one of these
bullies grossly insulted him. Lagron no more than used his elbow to push
past when the fellow cried out that he had been struck, and issued his
challenge. They fought this morning early in the Champs Elysees, and
Lagron was killed, run through the stomach deliberately by a man who
fought like a fencing-master, and poor Lagron did not even own a sword.
He had to borrow one to go to the assignation."

Andre-Louis--his mind ever on Vilmorin, whose case was here repeated,
even to the details--was swept by a gust of passion. He clenched his
hands, and his jaws set. Danton's little eyes observed him keenly.

"Well? And what do you think of that? Noblesse oblige, eh? The thing is
we must oblige them too, these -------s. We must pay them back in the
same coin; meet them with the same weapons. Abolish them; tumble these
assassinateurs into the abyss of nothingness by the same means."

"But how?"

"How? Name of God! Haven't I said it?"

"That is where we require your help," Le Chapelier put in. "There must
be men of patriotic feeling among the more advanced of your pupils.
M. Danton's idea is that a little band of these--say a half-dozen, with
yourself at their head--might read these bullies a sharp lesson."

Andre-Louis frowned.

"And how, precisely, had M. Danton thought that this might be done?"

M. Danton spoke for himself, vehemently.

"Why, thus: We post you in the Manege, at the hour when the Assembly is
rising. We point out the six leading phlebotomists, and let you loose to
insult them before they have time to insult any of the representatives.
Then to-morrow morning, six ------ phlebotomists themselves phlebotomized
secundum artem. That will give the others something to think about. It
will give them a great deal to think about, by ----! If necessary the dose
ma