“'No, not yet!' cried out Alphonse, as, breaking from my side, he gained the steps and mounted the platform; 'I will be his substitute!'
“Oh! how shall I tell the bitter anguish of that moment, which at once dispelled the last remaining hope I cherished, and left me destitute forever. As I dashed the tears from my eyes and looked up, the two boys were locked in each other's arms. It was a sight to have melted any heart, save those around them; but bloodshed and crime had choked up every avenue of feeling, and left them, not men, but tigers.
“'Alphonse de Meringues,' cried out the boy, in answer to a question regarding his name.
“There is no such designation in France,' said a grim-looking, hard-featured man, who, wearing the tri-colored scarf, sat at the table beside the clerk.
“'I was never called by any other,' rejoined the youth, proudly.
“'Citizen Meringues,' interposed the commissary, mildly, 'what is your age?'
“'I know not the years,' replied he; 'but I have heard that I was but an infant when they slew my father.'
“A fierce roar of passion broke from the mob below the scaffold as they heard this; and again the cry broke forth, 'Down with the tyrants!'
“'Art thou, then, the son of that base sycophant who rode courier to the Capet to Varennes?' said the hard-featured man at the table.
“'Of the truest gentleman of France,' called out a loud voice from below the platform; 'Vive le roi!' It was the blind man who spoke, and waved his cap above his head.