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perchance, the police discovered the first or even the second
meeting-place, a precaution which for our part we adopted as much as
possible with regard to our meetings of the Left end of the Committee.
We had reached the market quarter. Fighting had been going on there
throughout the day. There were no longer any gas-lamps in the streets.
We stopped from time to time, and listened so as not to run headlong
into the arms of a patrol. We got over a paling of planks almost
completely destroyed, and of which barricades had probably been made,
and we crossed the extensive area of half-demolished houses which at
that epoch encumbered the lower portions of the Rue Montmartre and Rue
Montorgueil. On the peaks of the high dismantled gables could be seen a
flickering red glow, doubtless the reflection of the bivouac-fires of the
soldiers encamped in the markets and in the neighborhood of Saint
Eustache. This reflection lighted our way. The last-maker, however,
narrowly escaped falling into a deep hole, which was no less than the
cellar of a demolished house. On coming out of this region, covered with
ruins, amongst which here and there a few trees might be perceived, the
remains of gardens which had now disappeared, we entered into narrow,
winding, and completely dark streets, where it was impossible to
recognize one's whereabouts. Nevertheless the last-maker walked on as
much at his ease as in broad daylight, and like a man who is going
straight to his destination. Once he turned round to me, and said to
me,--
"
The whole of this quarter is barricaded; and if, as I hope, our friends
come down, I will answer that they will hold it for a long time."
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