uppermost."

"No fear of that. The subterranean barracks and railway have ended
forever the rise of the scum, the reign of the _canaille_ and its
barricades."

"Adieu, my dear Hennequin. My respectful _hommages a Madame_."

After that day the writing of Pierre Firmin in "Le Sens Commun," though
still keeping within the pale of the law, became more decidedly hostile
to the Imperial system, still without committing their author to any
definite programme of the sort of government that should succeed it.




CHAPTER IV.

The weeks glided on. Isaura's manuscript bad passed into print; it came
out in the French fashion of _feuilletons_,--a small detachment at a
time. A previous flourish of trumpets by Savarin and the clique at his
command insured it attention, if not from the general public, at least
from critical and literary coteries. Before the fourth instalment
appeared it had outgrown the patronage of the coteries; it seized hold of
the public. It was not in the last school in fashion; incidents were not
crowded and violent,--they were few and simple, rather appertaining to an
elder school, in which poetry of sentiment and grace of diction
prevailed. That very resemblance to old favourites gave it the
attraction of novelty. In a word, it excited a pleased admiration, and
great curiosity was felt as to the authorship. When it oozed out that it