Page 524 sur 896

Nevertheless, not a moment was lost; not a moment! This Foulon

was at the Hotel de Ville, and might be loosed. Never, if Saint

Antoine knew his own sufferings, insults, and wrongs! Armed men

and women flocked out of the Quarter so fast, and drew even these

last dregs after them with such a force of suction, that within a

quarter of an hour there was not a human creature in Saint

Antoine's bosom but a few old crones and the wailing children.

No. They were all by that time choking the Hall of Examination

where this old man, ugly and wicked, was, and overflowing into

the adjacent open space and streets. The Defarges, husband and

wife, The Vengeance, and Jacques Three, were in the first press,

and at no great distance from him in the Hall.