"Good gracious no!" he replied. "I shall turn in home." "I mean to go," I said. "Go, then; but don't be fool enough to get drawn into things!" "No fear. Adieu!" "Adieu!" Carrel walked away with his calm and measured step, along the faubourg Montmartre, whilst I dashed off at a run for the place de la Bourse. I had not gone fifty yards before I met Dr. Thibaut. He looked very important. "Ah! it is you, dear friend?" I said. "What is the news?" Thibaut, who had adopted great gravity of expression, claiming that no doctor could make his way in the world without it, was, on this occasion, more than grave: he was gloomy. "Bad news!" he replied; "things are getting horribly complicated." "But are they fighting?" I said, "Yes; one man has been killed in the rue du Lycée and three more in the rue Saint-Honoré.... The Lancers charged in the rue de Richelieu and upon the place du Palais-Royal.... A barricade was being run up in the rue de Richelieu, but it was taken before it was finished." "Where are you bound for?" "You will hear that to-morrow, if I am successful," he said. "Upon my word, my dear fellow, you assume the airs of a diplomatist." "Who knows?--I may be going to form a new Government!" "In your calling as a doctor, my dear friend, I would invite you to give your whole attention to the old Ministry, for it seems to me deuced ill!" Two young people passed us by rapidly at this moment. "A tricoloured flag?" said one. "Surely it is not possible!" "I tell you I saw it myself," the other replied. "Where?" "On the quai de l'École." "When?" "Half an hour ago." "What did they do to the man who was bearing it?" "Nothing ... they just let him pass." "Let us go there, then." "All right." And they ran off down the rue Notre-Dame-des-Victoires. "You see, my dear fellow," I said to Thibaut, "things are getting warm! Go off to your Ministry, my friend." "I am going." He went away in the direction of the boulevard des Capucines. Thibaut had not deceived me. He was actually engaged in forming a Ministry; only, his Ministry was not destined to die of longevity. It was the Ministry of Gérard and Mortemart, which had its counterpart in the Thiers and Odilon Barrot Ministry of the Revolution of 1848. But, it will be urged, how could Dr. Thibaut form a Ministry? As for that--well, I will tell you.