CONTENTS I A Journey to France II A Mad Dog III The Demon Wolf IV The Clouds Gather V The Outburst VI An Anxious Time VII The 2d of September VIII Marie Arrested IX Robespierre X Free XI Marie and Victor XII Nantes XIII In the Hands of the Reds XIV The Noyades XV EnglandCHAPTER IA Journey to France"I don't know what to say, my dear.""Why, surely, James, you are not thinking for a moment of lettinghim go?""Well, I don't know. Yes, I am certainly thinking of it, though Ihaven't at all made up my mind. There are advantages and disadvantages.""Oh, but it is such a long way, and to live among those French people,who have been doing such dreadful things, attacking the Bastille,and, as I have heard you say, passing all sorts of revolutionarylaws, and holding their king and queen almost as prisoners inParis!""Well, they won't eat him, my dear. The French Assembly, or theNational Assembly, or whatever it ought to be called, has certainlybeen passing laws limiting the power of the king and abolishingmany of the rights and privileges of the nobility and clergy; butyou must remember that the condition of the vast body of the Frenchnation has been terrible. We have long conquered our liberties,and, indeed, never even in the height of the feudal system were themass of the English people more enslaved as have been the peasantsof France."We must not be surprised, therefore, if in their newly-recoveredfreedom they push matters to an excess at first; but all this willright itself, and no doubt a constitutional form of government,somewhat similar to our own, will be established. But all this isno reason against Harry's going out there. You don't suppose thatthe French people are going to fly at the throats of the nobility.Why, even in the heat of the civil war here there was no instanceof any personal wrong being done to the families of those engagedin the struggle, and in only two or three cases, after repeatedrisings, were any even of the leaders executed."No; Harry will be just as safe there as he would be here. As tothe distance, it's nothing like so far as if he went to India, forexample. I don't see any great chance of his setting the Thameson fire at home. His school report is always the same--'Conductfair; progress in study moderate'--which means, as I take it, thathe just scrapes along. That's it, isn't it, Harry?""Yes, father, I think so. You see every one cannot be at the topof the form.""That's a very true observation, my boy. It is clear that if thereare twenty boys in a class, nineteen fathers have to be disappointed.Still, of course, one would like to be the father who is notdisappointed."