“After the armistice, unfortunately, M. Van Klopen had not yet returned.  I was unable to procure any work; my resources were exhausted; and I would have starved during the Commune, but for my old friend, who several times brought me a little money, and some provisions.  Her captain was now a colonel, and was about to become a member of the government; at least, so she assured me.  The entrance of the troops into Paris put an end to her dream.  One night she came to me livid with fright.  She supposed herself gravely compromised, and begged me to hide her.  For four days she remained with me.  On the fifth, just as we were sitting down to dinner, my room was invaded by a number of police-agents, who showed us an order of arrest, and commanded us to follow them.

“My friend sank down upon a chair, stupid with fright.  But I retained my presence of mind, and persuaded one of the agents to go and notify my friend the justice.  He happened luckily to be at home, and at once hastened to my assistance.  He could do nothing, however, for the moment; the agents having positive orders to take us straight to Versailles.

“‘Well,’ said he, ‘I shall accompany you.’

“From the very first steps he took the next morning, he discovered that my position was indeed grave.  But he also and very clearly recognized a new device of the enemy to bring about my destruction.  The information filed against me stated that I had remained in the service of the Commune to the last moment; that I had been seen behind the barricades with a gun in my hand; and that I had formed one of a band of vile incendiaries.  This infamous scheme had evidently been suggested by my relations with my friend from the Batignolles, who was still more terribly compromised than she thought, the poor girl; her colonel having been captured, and convicted of pillage and murder, and herself charged with complicity.

“Isolated as I was, without resources, and without relatives, I would certainly have perished, but for the devoted efforts of my friend the justice, whose official position gave him access everywhere, and enabled him to reach my judges.  He succeeded in demonstrating my entire innocence; and after forty-eight hours’ detention, which seemed an age to me, I was set at liberty.

“At the door; I found the man who had just saved me.  He was waiting for me, but would not suffer me to express the gratitude with which my heart overflowed.

“‘You will thank me,’ he said, ’when I have deserved it better.  I have done nothing as yet that any honest man wouldn’t have done in my place.  What I wish is to discover what interests you are threatening without knowing it, and which must be considerable, if I may judge by the passion and the tenacity of those who are pursuing you.  What I desire to do is to lay hands upon the cowardly rascals in whose way you seem to stand.’

“I shook my head.

“‘You will not succeed,’ I said to him.