“Where was this society (the Ouvriers Egalitaires)
    held?”—­“Generally at the house of Colombier, keeper of a
    wine-shop, Rue Traversiere.”

“What formed the subject of discourse in these meetings, when you were there?”—­“Different crimes.  They talked of overthrowing the throne, assassinating the agents of the government—­shedding blood, in fact!”

For the Rue Traversiere we have only to read the Rue de Courcelles—­for Colombier the wine seller, CHRISTINA ex-Queen of Spain.  As for the subject of discourse at her Majesty’s hotel, events have bloodily proved that it was the overthrow of a throne—­the murder of the constituted authorities of Spain—­and, in the comprehensive meaning of Quenisset—­“shedding blood, in fact!” At the wine-shop meetings the French conspirator tells us that there was “an old man, a locksmith,” who would read revolutionary themes, and “electrify the souls of the young men about him!” The locksmith of the Rue de Courcelles was the crafty, sanguinary policy of the monarch of the barricades.  We now come to MADAME COLOMBIER, alias QUEEN CHRISTINA.—­

“Do you know whether your comrades had many cartridges?”—­“I do not know exactly what the quantity was, but I heard a man say, and, Madame Colombier also boasted to another woman, that they had worked very hard, and for some time past, at making cartridges.”

Madame COLOMBIER, however, must cede in energy and boldness to the reckless devilry of the Spanish ex-Queen; for the cartridges manufactured by the wine-seller’s wife were not to be discharged into the bed-room of her own infant daughters!  They were certain not to shed the blood of her own children.  Now the cartridges of the Rue de Courcelles were made for any service.

One more extract from the confessions of QUENISSET (alias DON LEON):—­

“At the corner of the Rue Traversiere I saw Just, Auguste, and several other young men, whom I had seen in the morning receiving cartridges.  Upon my asking whether the attack was to be made, Just answered, Yes.  He felt for his pistols; my comrade got his ready under his blouse.  I seized mine under my shirt.  Just called to me, ‘There, there, it is there you are to fire.’  I fired.  I thought that all the others would do the same; but they made me swallow the hook, and then left me to my fate, the rascals!”

Poor DON LEON!  So far the parallel is complete.  The pistol was fired against Spanish liberty; and the royal Just, finding the object missed, sneaks off, and leaves his dupe for the executioner.  There, however, the similitude fails.  LOUIS-PHILIPPE sleeps in safety—­if, indeed, the ghosts of his Spanish victims let him sleep at all; whilst for Just, the carpenter, he is marked for the guillotine.  Could Justice have her own, we should see the King of the French at the bar of Spain; were the world guided by abstract right, one fate would fall to the carpenter and the King.  History, however, will award his Majesty his just deserts.  There is a Newgate Calendar for Kings as well as for meaner culprits.