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as traitors; against God for not taking their part. What can be done to weld this mass of hollow bubbles into the solid form of a nationโ€”the nation it affects to be? What generation can be born out of the unmanly race, inebriate with brag and absinthe? Forgive me this tirade; I have been reviewing the battalion I command. As for Gustave Rameau,โ€”if we survive the siege, and see once more a Government that can enforce order, and a public that will refuse renown for balderdash,โ€”I should not be surprised if Gustave Rameau were among the prettiest imitators of Lamartineโ€™s early Meditations. Had he been born under Louis XIV. how loyal he would have been! What sacred tragedies in the style of Athalie he would have written, in the hope of an audience at Versailles! But I detain you from the letter I was charged to deliver you. I have done so purposely, that I might convince myself that you welcome that release which your too delicate sense of honour shrank too long from demanding.โ€

Here he took forth and placed a letter in Isauraโ€™s hand; and, as if to allow her to read it unobserved, retired to the window recess.

Isaura glanced over the letter. It ran thus:

โ€œI feel that it was only to your compassion that I owed your consent to my suit. Could I have doubted that before, your words when we last met sufficed to convince me. In my selfish pain at the moment, I committed a great wrong. I would have held you bound to a promise from which you desired to be free. Grant me pardon for that; and for all the faults by which I have offended you. In cancelling our engagement, let me hope that I may rejoice in your friendship, your remembrance of me, some gentle and kindly thought. My life may henceforth pass out of contact with yours; but you will ever dwell in my heart, an image pure and holy as the saints in whom you may well believe-they are of your own kindred.โ€

โ€œMay I convey to Gustave Rameau any verbal reply to his letter?โ€ asked De Mauleon, turning as she replaced the letter on the table.

โ€œOnly my wishes for his welfare. It might wound him if I added, my gratitude for the generous manner in which he has interpreted my heart, and acceded to its desires.โ€

โ€œMademoiselle, accept my congratulations. My condolences are for the poor girl left to my guardianship. Unhappily she loves this man; and there are reasons why I cannot withhold my consent to her union with him, should he demand it, now that, in the letter remitted to you, he has accepted your dismissal. If I can keep him out of all the follies and all the evils into which he suffers his vanity to mislead his reason, I will do so;โ€”would I might say, only in compliance with your compassionate injunctions. But henceforth the infatuation of my ward compels me to take some interest in his career. Adieu, Mademoiselle! I have no fear for your happiness now.โ€

Left alone, Isaura stood as one transfigured. All the bloom of her youth seemed suddenly restored. Round her red lips the dimples opened, countless mirrors of one happy smile. โ€œI am free, I am free,โ€ she murmuredโ€”โ€œjoy, joy!โ€ and she passed from the room to seek the Venosta, singing clear, singing loud, as a bird that escapes from the cage and warbles to the heaven it regains the blissful tale of its release.





CHAPTER XIII.

In proportion to the nearer roar of the besiegersโ€™ cannon, and the sharper gripe of famine within the walls, the Parisians seemed to increase their scorn for the skill of the enemy, and their faith in the sanctity of the capital. All false news was believed as truth; all truthful news abhorred as falsehood. Listen to the groups round the cafes. โ€œThe Prussian funds have fallen three per cent. at Berlin,โ€ says a threadbare ghost of the Bourse (he had been a clerk of Louvierโ€™s). โ€œAy,โ€ cries a National Guard, โ€œread extracts from La Liberte. The barbarians are in despair. Nancy is threatened, Belfort is freed. Bourbaki is invading Baden. Our fleets are pointing their cannon upon Hamburg. Their country endangered, their retreat cut off, the sole hope of Bismarck and his trembling legions is to find a refuge in Paris. The increasing fury of the bombardment is a proof of their despair.โ€

โ€œIn that case,โ€ whispered Savarin to De Breze, โ€œsuppose we send a flag of truce to Versailles with a message from Trochu that, on disgorging their conquests, ceding the left bank of the Rhine, and paying the expenses of the war, Paris, ever magnanimous to the vanquished; will allow the Prussians to retire.โ€

โ€œThe Prussians! Retire!โ€ cried Edgar Ferrier, catching the last word and glancing fiercely at Savarin. โ€œWhat Prussian spy have we among us? Not one of the barbarians shall escape. We have but to dismiss the traitors who have usurped the government, proclaim the Commune and the rights of labour, and we give birth to a Hercules that even in its cradle can strangle the vipers.โ€

Edgar Ferrier was the sole member of his political party among the group which he thus addressed; but such was the terror which the Communists already began to inspire among the bourgeoisie that no one volunteered a reply.

Savarin linked his arm in De Brezeโ€™s, and prudently drew him off.

โ€œI suspect,โ€ said the former, โ€œthat we shall soon have worse calamities to endure than the Prussian obus and the black loaf. The Communists will have their day.โ€

โ€œI shall be in my grave before then,โ€ said De Breze, in hollow accents. โ€œIt is twenty-four hours since I spent my last fifty sous on the purchase of a rat, and I burnt the legs of my bedstead for the fuel by which that quadruped was roasted.โ€

โ€œEntre nous, my poor friend, I am much in the same condition,โ€ said Savarin, with a ghastly attempt at his old pleasant laugh. โ€œSee how I am shrunken! My wife would be unfaithful to the Savarin of her dreams if she accepted a kiss from the slender gallant you behold in me. But I thought you were in the National Guard, and therefore had not to vanish into air.โ€

โ€œI was a National Guard, but I could not stand the hardships, and being above the age, I obtained my exemption. As to pay, I was then too proud to claim my wage of 1 franc 25 centimes. I should not be too proud now. Ah, blessed be Heaven! here comes Lemercier; he owes me a dinnerโ€”he shall pay it.โ€

โ€œBon jour, my dear Frederic! How handsome you look in your kepi! Your uniform is brilliantly fresh from the soil of powder. What a contrast to the tatterdemalions of the Line!โ€

โ€œI fear,โ€ said Lemercier, ruefully, โ€œthat my costume will not look so well a day or two hence. I have just had news that will no doubt seem very gloriousโ€”in the news papers. But then newspapers are not subjected to cannonballs.โ€

โ€œWhat do you mean?โ€ answered De Breze.

โ€œI met, as I emerged from my apartment a few minutes ago, that fire-eater, Victor de Mauleon, who always contrives to know what passes at headquarters. He told me that preparations are being made for a great sortie. Most probably the announcement will appear in

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