"You deceive yourself, my friend," said Lorin, coolly; "we are better sans-culottes than yourselves, seeing that we belong to the club of Thermopyles, of whose patriotism no one, I hope, entertains a doubt. Let these citizens go," continued Lorin, "they resist no longer."
"It is not the less true that if this woman is an object of suspicion—"
"If she was a suspicious character she would have made her escape during this skirmish, and not, as you see she has done, waited till it had terminated."
"Hum!" said one of the Volunteers, "What the Citizen Thermopyle observes is quite true."
"Besides, we shall know, since my friend is going to conduct her to the Poste, while we go and drink to the health of the nation."
"Are we going to drink?" said the chief.
"Certainly, I am very thirsty, and I know a pretty little cabaret at the corner of the Rue Thomas du Louvre."
"Why did you not say so at once, Citizen? We are sorry to have doubted your patriotism; and to prove it, let us, in the name of the nation and the law, embrace each other as friends."
"Let us embrace," said Lorin.