n the streets of Marseilles a popular manifestation in
favor of peace which was practically a protest against the government.
The old republicans in their implacable struggle with the Emperor, the
companies of the International which had just been organized, and a
great number of Italians and Spaniards who had fled their countries on
account of recent insurrections, composed the procession. A long-haired,
consumptive student was carrying the flag. "It is peace that we want--a
peace which may unite all mankind," chanted the paraders. But on this
earth, the noblest propositions are seldom heard, since Destiny amuses
herself in perverting them and turning them aside.

Scarcely had the friends of peace entered the rue Cannebiere with their
hymn and standard, when war came to meet them, obliging them to resort
to fist and club. The day before, some battalions of Zouaves from
Algiers had disembarked in order to reinforce the army on the
frontier, and these veterans, accustomed to colonial existence and
undiscriminating as to the cause of disturbances, seized the opportunity
to intervene in this manifestation, some with bayonets and others with
ungirded belts. "Hurrah for War!" and a rain of lashes and blows
fell upon the unarmed singers. Marcelo saw the innocent student, the
standard-bearer of peace, knocked down wrapped in his flag, by the
merry kicks of the Zouaves. Then he knew no more, since he had received
various blows with a leather strap, and a knife thrust in his shoulder;
he had to run the same as the others.

That day developed for the first time, his fiery, stubborn character,
irritable before contradiction, even to the point of adopting the most
extreme resolution. "Down with War!" Since it was not possible for him
to protest in any other way, he would leave the country. The Emperor
might arrange his affairs as best he could. The struggle was going to
be long and disastrous, according to the enemies of the Empire. If he
stayed, he would in a few months be drawn for the soldiery. Desnoyers
renounced the honor of serving the Emperor. He hesitated a little when
he thought of his mother. But his country relatives would not turn her
out, and he planned to work very hard and send her money. Who knew what
riches might be waiting for him, on the other side of the sea! . . .
Good-bye, France!

Thanks to his savings, a harbor official found it to his interest to
offer him the choice of three boats. One was sailing to Egy