Jean flattened himself against a doorway to escape the pressure. But the horse paused also and leaned against him.
"Oh, say, then!"
"Hello! Here they come again!" exclaimed the corporal, reining in his horse, with his eyes bent towards the Madeleine.
At this juncture the door was suddenly opened and Jean, who was fast having the breath squeezed out of him, fell inside.
The door was as suddenly closed again and barred.
The cavalryman, who had not seen this movement, glanced around on either side, behind, then beneath his horse, finally up in the sky, and shrugged his shoulders and rode on along the walk.
"Oho, Monsieur Jean!" roared a friendly voice as the young man caught his breath; "trying to break into my house, eh? By my saint, young man, you were in a mighty tight place! Oh, this dreadful day! No business at all, and——"
"Business!" gasped Jean,—"business, man! Never had a more busy day in my life!"
"You? Yes! it is such wild young blades as you and that serious-looking Lerouge who raise all the row in Paris.—I say, monsieur," broke off the garrulous old restaurateur, and, running to the window behind the bar, "they're putting the sand!"
Men with barrows from the Ministry of Marine were hastily strewing the smooth asphalt with sand. It meant cavalry operations.