Moreover, he had expected something of a riot in the streets.  The temper of the people of Paris was at fever heat just now.  The hatred of the populace against a certain class, and against certain individuals, was only equalled by their enthusiasm in favour of others.

They had worshipped Marat for his squalor and his vices; they worshipped Danton for his energy and Robespierre for his calm; they worshipped Deroulede for his voice, his gentleness and his pity, for his care of their children and the eloquence of his speech.

It was that eloquence which Merlin feared now; but he little knew the type of man he had to deal with.

Deroulede’s influence over the most unruly, the most vicious populace the history of the world has ever known, was not obtained through fanning its passions.  That popularity, though brilliant, is always ephemeral.  The passions of a mob will invariably turn against those who have helped to rouse them.  Marat did not live to see the waning of his star; Danton was dragged to the guillotine by those whom he had taught to look upon that instrument of death as the only possible and unanswerable political argument; Robespierre succumbed to the orgies of bloodshed he himself had brought about.  But Deroulede remained master of the people of Paris for as long as he chose to exert that mastery.  When they listened to him they felt better, nobler, less hopelessly degraded.

He kept up in their poor, misguided hearts that last flickering sense of manhood which their bloodthirsty tyrants, under the guise of Fraternity and Equality, were doing their best to smother.

Even now, when he might have turned the temper of the small crowd outside his door to his own advantage, he preferred to say nothing; he even pacified them with a gesture.

He well knew that those whom he incited against Merlin now would, once their blood was up, probably turn against him in less than half-an-hour.

Merlin, who all along had meant to return to the house, took his opportunity now.  He allowed Deroulede and the two men to go on ahead, and beat a hasty retreat back into the house, followed by the jeers of the women.

"A la lanterne, vieux cretin!" they shouted as soon as the hall door was once more closed in their faces.  A few of them began hammering against the door with their fists; then they realised that their special favourite, Citizen-Deputy Deroulede, was marching along between two soldiers, as if he were a prisoner.  The word went round that he was under arrest, and was being taken to the Hall of Justice—­ a prisoner.

This was not to be.  The mob of Paris had been taught that it was the master in the city, and it had learned its lesson well.  For the moment it had chosen to take Paul Deroulede under its special protection, and as a guard of honour to him—­the women in ragged kirtles, the men with bare legs and stripped to the waist, the children all yelling, hooting, and shrieking—­followed him, to see that none dared harm him.