both these overtures it was clear that the impulse of the proposers was
towards any form of government rather than republican. The _sergens de
ville_ were sufficient that day to put down riot. They did make a charge
on a mob, which immediately ran away.

The morning of that day the Council of Ten were summoned by Lebeau--minus
only Rameau, who was still too unwell to attend, and the Belgian, not
then at Paris; but their place was supplied by the two travelling
members, who had been absent from the meeting before recorded. These
were conspirators better known in history than those I have before
described; professional conspirators--personages who from their youth
upwards had done little else but conspire. Following the discreet plan
pursued elsewhere throughout this humble work, I give their names other
than they bore. One, a very swarthy and ill-favoured man, between forty
and fifty, I call Paul Grimm--by origin a German, but by rearing and
character French; from the hair on his head, staring up rough and ragged
as a bramblebush, to the soles of small narrow feet, shod with dainty
care, he was a personal coxcomb, and spent all he could spare on his
dress. A clever man, not ill-educated--a vehement and effective speaker
at a club. Vanity and an amorous temperament had made him a conspirator,
since he fancied he interested the ladies more in that capacity than any
other. His companion, Edgar Ferrier, would have been a journalist, only
hitherto his opinions had found no readers; the opinions were those of
Marat. He rejoiced in thinking that his hour for glory, so long
deferred, had now arrived. He was thoroughly sincere: his father and
grandfather had died in a madhouse. Both these men, insignificant in
ordinary times, were likely to become of terrible importance in the
crisis of a revolution. They both had great power with the elements that
form a Parisian mob. The instructions given to these members of the
Council by Lebeau were brief: they were summed up in the one word,