At first blush Billet had felt great confidence in this leader, whose name was so popular as to have reached him down in the country. He never thought to ask him how he was going to get them. He noticed a priest in the crowd working lustily and though he had no great confidence in the cloth he liked this one to whom he confided the serving out of the amunition.
Marat jumped upon a stone horseblock. The uproar was indescribable.
"Silence," he called out; "I am Marat and I want to speak."
Like magic all was hushed and every eye was turned upon the orator.
"You want arms to take the Bastile? come with me to the Invalides where are twenty-five thousand stand of arms, and you shall have them."
"To the Invalides!" shouted the throngs.
"Now," continued Marat to Billet, "you be off to the Bastile but stay—you may want help before I come."
He wrote on a leaf of his tablets "From Marat," and tore this out to give it to Billet, who smiled to see that it also bore a masonic sign. He and Marat belonged to the Order of the Invisibles over which presided Balsamo-Cagliostro, and his work was what they were prosecuting.
"What am I to do with a paper having no name or address?" inquired the peasant.
"My friend has no address; but his name is well-known. Ask the first workingman you come across for the People's Spokesman, Gonchon."