PART SECOND.—IN PARIS.
BOOK FIRST.
CIMOURDAIN.
CHAPTER I.
THE STREETS OF PARIS AT THIS PERIOD.
The people lived in public, they ate from tables spread in front of their doors, the women sat on church steps making lint and singing the Marseillaise; Pare Monceaux and the Luxembourg gardens were parade grounds; there were smiths' shops in full blast at every crossing; they made guns under the eyes of the passers-by, who applauded them; this was the word in everybody's mouth: "Patience, we are in the midst of revolution." The people smiled heroically. They went to the play as they did in Athens during the Peloponnesian War; there were notices posted at the corners of the streets: "The Siege of Thionville." "The Mother of a Family Rescued from the Flames."
"The Club of Sans Souci."
"The Oldest of the Popes Joan."
"The Philosopher-Soldiers."
"The Art of Loving in the Village."
The Germans were at the gates; it was rumored that the king of Prussia had engaged boxes at the opera. Everything was frightful and nobody was frightened. The mysterious law against the suspected, Merlin de Douai's crime, made the guillotine threaten the heads of all. A denounced lawyer, named Séran, sat by his win-
