So all these things happened on 2 August, for on the 3rd I was awakened by the call to arms, which was being beaten furiously in the street, and by Delanoue, who burst into my room, a double-barrelled gun in his hand. A gun was such an unusual toilet accessory in the case of Delanoue that I was more struck by it than by all the rest of the commotion. "What the dickens is happening?" I asked him. "Charles X. is marching on Paris with twenty thousand men and fifty pieces of cannon, my dear boy, and all Paris on its part has risen to march against him. Will you come too?" "By Jove! of course I will!" I cried, leaping out of bed. "I should rather think I would!" I called Joseph, whose terrified face I had not seen behind Delanoue. "Here I am, monsieur!" he said, "here I am!" "Give me my shooting clothes, and take my rifle to the nearest gun-maker's to be cleaned." "Don't let him take your gun to a shop," said Delanoue; "they will take it from him on the way." "What!" I said, "they would seize it?" "Without a doubt.... Things are worse than during the Three Days!" "Then, my dear Joseph, clean it yourself!" "Good heavens! good heavens!" said Joseph, "is monsieur going to return to Soissons?" "No, Joseph; I am going, on the contrary, in exactly the opposite direction." "Thank goodness!" Harel came in whilst I was dressing. "Good--morning, Harel.... What is the news, my friend?" "The news is," said Harel, drawing his snuff-box from his pocket and plunging in his finger and thumb up to the first joint, "the news is that I have a cunning idea in my head." He breathed up his pinch of snuff with sensuous enjoyment, and, as is usual with great connoisseurs, scattered three-quarters of his snuff over the floor and into the air. "An excellent idea!" he went on. "Well, my friend, you shall communicate it to me on my return." "Where are you going?" "To Rambouillet, of course!" "Excellent! That's the finishing stroke! You ran the risk of being shot three days ago at Soissons, and now you want to go and get some limb or other broken at Rambouillet!" "But don't you realise that Charles X. is marching on Paris with twenty thousand men and fifty pieces of cannon?" "I know that is the report; but let fools believe such news as that. Poor Charles X.! I will wager, if he marches to any town whatsoever, it will be towards Havre or Cherbourg." "Never mind, my dear friend! Delanoue has come to fetch me, and if it is nothing more than to hunt big game in the park at Rambouillet, I do not wish to miss the opportunity... So once more you must put off telling me your piece of news till my return, if I do return." "Give me a part in your piece," Delanoue said in a whisper. "Certainly, I promise." I turned round to Harel. "How did you come here?" I asked him. "Why, in a cab, of course." "Good! we will take it." "What for?" "To drive to Rambouillet." "You must take me as far as the Odéon, then!" "Agreed!"