"Good even, Madam Lebrenn," said Martin, setting down his gun. "I see you are pulling lint; a good precaution, for to-morrow, at daybreak, there will be hot work, or I am mistaken. Good evening, Madam Henory; your little Sacrovir will probably hear music to-morrow which will not be as pleasing to his ear as his mother's songs."
"It is good that my son become early used to such music, Monsieur Martin," smiled the young mother. "Perhaps he will have to listen to it often, for I want to make him a good republican, like his father and grandfather."
"What news do you bring, friends?" asked John Lebrenn.
"I am just from the office of the National," said Duresnel, "where they were holding a meeting of the opposition journalists. Armand Carrel regards all attempt at revolution as senseless. He will not admit that an undisciplined population can triumph over an army."
"The people, happily, will not guide themselves by the opinion of this particular journalist," laughed Martin. "The agitation is spreading in all quarters. A gathering, ordered to evacuate the Place of the Bourse, attacked the troops, shouting 'Long live the charter! Down with the King! To the lamp-post with the Jesuits and Polignac!'"
"The same scene was reproduced on the Place of Our Lady of Victories, and on St. Denis Boulevard," said Duresnel.
"And they are getting ready for the same struggle in the St. Honoré quarter," Martin continued. "To-morrow at dawn Paris will bristle with barricades. The combatants are pouring in by the thousand. Several printers have released their workmen. Maes, the brewer in the Marceau suburb, is ready to march at the head of his helpers. Coming along the Dauphine passage, I stepped into our friend Joubert's; his book store is a veritable arsenal, filled with arms."
"Several armorers' shops have been invaded," Duresnel went on. "On the Place of the Bourse I met Etienne Arago, the director of the Vaudeville Theater, who was taking a cart-load of guns and swords from the theater to the home of Citizen Charles Teste, whom he charged with the task of distributing them to combatants. There will be arms in abundance."
"This evening," said Martin, "I saw in St. Antoine women and children carrying paving stones to the upper stories of their houses, to hurl down upon the troops. The word is being passed along: 'Down with the pretorians! Death to all the officers!'"
"When the women take part in a revolution," put in Madam Lebrenn, "it is a good omen. Here are some old friends coming," she added. "They will have news also."