106 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



sooth, but, let me tell you, many a man as good as 

 you has been there, who made no work* about it," 

 she flung the ex-intendant from the top of the stairs 

 to the bottom, shut the door upon the party, and left 

 them to find out each other in the dark. The fall 

 fractured the unhappy man's jaw, and left him 

 covered with bruises and blood. His companions 

 cried out for a surgeon to dress his wounds, or for 

 water to wash them. They were as little listened 

 to, as ever they had listened. This was the lesson 

 to a deserter. The next was to a popular repre- 

 sentative. 



The town of Etampes had distinguished itself by 

 its love of revolution, and had, of course, flourished 

 in oratory and assassination. M. Troncon du Cou- 

 dray, an orator after their own heart, had canvassed 

 them on the merit of congenial feelings ; and they 

 had returned him by that criterion, of all things 

 excellent in a republic, the voice of the multitude. 

 He was now one of the prisoners, and the command- 

 ant of the escort took good care that his arrival should 

 be thoroughly known to his constituents. He halted 

 the cages in. the square of the little town, and the 

 populace, in consequence, had full leisure to declare 

 those opinions which their representative had so often 

 declared to be the perfection of human wisdom. 

 They hooted at him and his companions, cursed 

 him and them alike, surrounded the cages, insulted 

 their living contents with every kind of offence con- 



