CHAPTER XI

This décision on the part of Gaston, while it infuriated his mother, overwhelmed M. Levrault with joy and happiness. He attended regularly the sittings of the Upper Chamber, not out of mere curiosity, but as one who would soon take part in their délibérations. Every morning he would declaim in his garden a few pages of Mirabeau, and before going to the Luxembourg he would walk in front of the palace of the Tuileries, and study it in ail its aspects. He went so far as to order a Court dress-coat, and one morning, on waking up, he saw it lying on a chair, with the knee-breeches, the Court sword, and the peaked hat. He dressed at once, and proceeded to contemplate himself in a long mirror. He had heard the evening before of some excitement in Paris, without attaching the least importance to it ; so it was without the slightest misgivings that he sallied forth in the afternoon to see once more his dear Tuileries. At this moment the neighbourhood of the palace presented a scène of indescribable confusion. Armed bands were engaged in hurling furniture out of the Windows ; no soldiers were to be seen ; the royal family had just fled : it was the Révolution.

M. Levrault was looking on ail this with a dazed air, when he suddenly met Jolibois at the head of a band of republicans,

who at once began to taunt the old man for refusing him his daughter, and to advise him to look after his life and property. Immediately grasping the position of things, M. Levrault, with great présence of mind, stopped a group of people who were carrying a wounded man to the hospital, and insisted on taking them ail to his house. There, to the disgust of Gaston and the mârchioness, he installed the sufferer in a comfortable room, and insisted on his companions drinking the health of the new-born Republic. When alone with Laure, he began to reproach her for ail that had happened. " Wretched girl," he said, *'you see what your foolish conduct has brought me to. I wanted to marry you to Jolibois, but you would be a mârchioness. Heaven only knows now what will become of us ! " Soon after the proclamation of the Republic M. Levrault lost the greater part of his wealth, and decided to retire to Brittany with his friends.