n, Kelly! Stay close
beside me." And I set off at a swinging pace, down the hollow, out
across the left bank of the little river, straight to the bridge,
which we reached almost on a run.

"Look there!" cried my companion, as we came in sight of the square.

The square was packed with Breton peasants; near the fountain two
cider barrels had been placed, a plank thrown across them, and on this
plank stood a man holding a red flag.

The man was John Buckhurst.

When I came nearer I could see that he wore a red scarf across his
breast; a little nearer and I could hear his passionless voice
sounding; nearer still, I could distinguish every clear-cut word:

"Men of the sea, men of that ancient Armorica which, for a thousand
years, has suffered serfdom, I come to you bearing no sword. You need
none; you are free under this red flag I raise above you."

He lifted the banner, shaking out the red folds.

"Yet if I come to you bearing no sword, I come with something better,
something more powerful, something so resistless that, using it as
your battle-cry, the world is yours!

"I come bearing the watchword of world-brotherhood--Peace, Love,
Equality! I bear it from your battle-driven brothers, scourged to the
battlements of Paris by the demons of a wicked government! I bear it
from the devastated towns of the provinces, from your homeless
brothers of Alsace and Lorraine.

"Peace, Love, Equality! All this is yours for the asking. The commune
will be proclaimed throughout France; Paris is aroused, Lyons is
ready, Bordeaux watches, Marseilles waits!

"You call your village Paradise--yet you starve here. Let this little
Breton village be a paradise in truth--a shrine for future happy
pilgrims who shall say: 'Here first were sewn the seeds of the world's
liberty! Here first bloomed the perfect flower of universal
brotherhood!"

He bent his sleek, gray head meekly, pausing as though in profound
meditation. Suddenly he raised his head; his tone changed; a faint
ring of defiance sounded under the smooth flow of words.

He began with a blasphemous comparison, alluding to the money-changers
in the temple--a subtle appeal to righteous violence.

"It rests with us to cleanse the broad temple of our country and
drive from it the thieves and traitors who enslave us! How can we do
it? They are strong; we are weak. Ah, but _are_ they truly strong?
You say they have armies? Armies are composed of men. These men are
your brothers,