"No, I did not know it," replied the dark young man, in a tone
which he vainly strove to render artless; "I am but just arrived,
as I told you, from the end of the earth."

"What! you did not know that? Well, six months hence it will be
an accomplished fact."

"Really!"

"I have the honor to tell you so, citizen."

The two soldier-like young men exchanged a glance and a smile,
though the young blond one was apparently chafing under the weight
of his extreme impatience.

Their informant continued: "Lyons is the headquarters of the
conspiracy, if one can call conspiracy a plot which was organized
openly. 'The provisional government' would be a more suitable
word."

"Well, then, citizen," said the dark young man with a politeness
not wholly exempt from satire, "let us call it 'provisional
government.'"

"This provisional government has its staff and its armies."

"Bah! its staff perhaps--but its armies--"

"Its armies, I repeat."