again closed behind them. Once through, they arranged themselves along
the hedges, which, outside the barrier, bordered each side of the road.

There was a great crowd collected there, for numbers of peasants and
other people had been stopped at the gates on their way into Paris. They
were arriving by three different roads--from Montreuil, from Vincennes,
and from St. Maur; and the crowd was growing more dense every moment.
Monks from the convent in the neighborhood, women seated on
pack-saddles, and peasants in their carts, and all, by their questions
more or less pressing, formed a continual murmur, while some voices were
raised above the others in shriller tones of anger or complaint.

There were, besides this mass of arrivals, some groups who seemed to
have come from the city. These, instead of looking at the gate, fastened
their gaze on the horizon, bounded by the Convent of the Jacobins, the
Priory of Vincennes, and the Croix Faubin, as though they were expecting
to see some one arrive. These groups consisted chiefly of bourgeois,
warmly wrapped up, for the weather was cold, and the piercing northeast
wind seemed trying to tear from the trees all the few remaining leaves
which clung sadly to them.

Three of these bourgeois were talking together--that is to say, two
talked and one listened, or rather seemed to listen, so occupied was he
in looking toward Vincennes. Let us turn our attention to this last. He
was a man who must be tall when he stood upright, but at this moment his
long legs were bent under him, and his arms, not less long in
proportion, were crossed over his breast. He was leaning against the
hedge, which almost hid his face, before which he also held up his hand
as if for further concealment. By his side a little man, mounted on a
hillock, was talking to another tall man who was constantly slipping off