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The Café Roysin had just opened. It may be remembered that the large
hall of this café had served for the meeting of a famous club in 1848.
It was there, it may also be remembered, that the rendezvous had been
settled.
The Café Roysin is entered by a passage opening out upon the street, a
lobby of some yards in length is next crossed, and then comes a large
hall, with high windows, and looking-glasses on the walls, containing in
the centre several billiard-tables, some small marble-topped tables,
chairs, and velvet-covered benches. It was this hall, badly arranged,
however, for a meeting where we could have deliberated, which had been
the hall of the Roysin Club. Cournet, Aubry, and Malardier installed
themselves there. On entering they did not disguise who they were; they
were welcomed, and shown an exit through the garden in case of
necessity.
De Flotte had just joined them.
Eight o'clock was striking when the Representatives began to arrive.
Bruckner, Maigne, and Brillier first, and then successively Charamaule,
Cassal, Dulac, Bourzat, Madier de Montjau, and Baudin. Bourzat, on
account of the mud, as was his custom, wore wooden shoes. Whoever
thought Bourzat a peasant would be mistaken. He rather resembled a
Benedictine monk. Bourzat, with his southern imagination, his quick
intelligence, keen, lettered, refined, possesses an encyclopedia in his
head, and wooden shoes on his feet. Why not? He is Mind and People. The
ex-Constituent Bastide came in with Madier de Montjau. Baudin shook the
hands of all with warmth, but he did not speak. He was pensive. "What is
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