CHAPTER XIX.
THE FIELD OF THE FEDERATION.
I could not sleep all night.
I had seen so much since my arrival, and had been in company with so many great men—Mirabeau, Robespierre, Lameth, Laclos, Chemier, Talma, David, Laharpe, Danton, Marat, Desmoulins, Anacharsis Clootz, and Herbert—that their names continued to ring in my soul like an alarm bell.
And through them all passed the beautiful amazon in her red robe; and that seemed so strange to me, coming as I had for the first time from the Forest of Argonne, and feeling, as it were, in another world, or else in a state of furious delirium.
I arose at daybreak. Alas! the morning was dark and rainy-looking; thick black clouds were chasing each other over the sky once so pure and brilliant, but now changing its opinions, and becoming aristocratic.
I awoke M. Drouet. I was astonished that any one could sleep on the night heralding in such a day. He jumped up and dressed himself. We took our guns, and descended.
We soon joined our friends of St. Menehould and Islettes, formed rank, and marched to the Champ de Mars.
At the door of Sainte Honoré, we met the orator of the human race, who had passed the night at the Cordeliers.
He had with him a body of men, Poles, Russians, Turks, Persians, all in their national costumes. He took them to the federation of France before he took them to the federation of the world.