"'Let him eat the rat! Let him eat the rat!'
"He ate it, and we cheered him. Perhaps he was hungry, and needed it, for, owing to the disturbances, he had been a long time without refreshment; and though, to do him justice, he made little pretence of appetite, one of the women—a good, thrifty soul—could not resist exclaiming—
"'What a waste of a good rat! Why do you throw it away on him, when the people of Paris are hungry?'
"That, however, was a question which, in spite of its importance, I had no time to answer. At last the Mobiles were coming—the Breton Mobiles, with whom it was impossible for the Revolutionists to fraternise, because they did not know their language. There was no purpose to be served by staying any longer, the more especially as I had a lady in my charge.
"'Dear angel,' I whispered to Fifine, 'there is no more revolution to be seen to-day. I will make haste and take you home.'
"It was more easily said than done, but I was not a man to be deterred by obstacles. I shouted as before—
"'Room there! Room for a lady! Room for Jean Antoine Stromboli Kosnapulski!'
"And room was made. I myself helped to make it, by pushing vigorously with my strong arms. As the Bretons were entering by one door, Fifine and I were issuing by another.
"It was all over—for the time. Many arrests were made; but, in the confusion, Fifine and I escaped arrest, and it was not until the next day that I knew that my behaviour had been remarked by any public functionary. Then, however, I had a passage of arms with the Père Dubois.
"'Rascal!' he said. 'I saw you.'