"To tell you that you are no longer safe here. The street is guarded by sectioners. They might come up here at any moment to fire from the windows in case of attack. I have orders to conduct you to the Hôtel de Ville, where Citoyen Robespierre has provided for your safety, but he wishes to see you first. You must wait for him in the antechamber of the Commune's Council Hall, where he is at this moment conferring with his colleagues. He will join you as soon as he is at liberty; you have only to follow me. This room communicates directly through a corridor with the Hôtel de Ville." "Then let us go!" said Clarisse; and, taking Thérèse by the hand, she followed the man. The two women crossed a suite of rooms and corridors where officials came and went in hot haste. Urbain led the way, turning now and then to direct them aright. Presently he stopped and said, pointing to a door-- "It is in here!" and he opened it. Clarisse and Thérèse now found themselves in a room decorated with Revolutionary emblems, the walls covered with a greenish paper. Two candlesticks stood on the mantelpiece. "It was here Citoyen Robespierre told me to bid you wait. He is in the next room attending a meeting in the Commune's Council Hall." Whilst he spoke Urbain indicated a door, a little way from that by which the two women had entered, behind which a confused murmur of voices was audible. "I will go and let him know you are here," he said. The two women were now alone. Clarisse cast a hasty glance round. The apartment was very plainly furnished; in fact, almost void of furniture. Against a panelling between two doors on the left was a raised platform, on which stood a large copper-embossed table. At the foot of the platform were a couple of chairs and an armchair, the only other furniture of a room which had all the gloomy appearance of a deserted vestibule. Just then a flash of lightning ran round the apartment. The two women turned. A bust representing the Republic appeared in the vivid and sudden light, ghastly amid the surrounding darkness, while a trophy surmounting the bust seemed to emit sparks of fire. An awful thunder-clap burst on their ears, and screams and cries reached them through the two windows. Clarisse and Thérèse, taking each other by the hand, tremblingly looked out to see what was happening, and Clarisse recognised the Place de la Grêve. A large crowd, sectioners and populace, swarmed in the square. Cannons were being rolled hither and thither amidst a brandishing of pikes, guns, bayonets, and flags--all the noise and bustle of war and riot mingling with the roar of thunder and the flash of lightning. "Come from the dreadful sight!" said Clarisse, pulling Thérèse gently away. At that moment a door opened, and as the two women turned Robespierre appeared, attended by Urbain. The Incorruptible bore unmistakable marks of the anguish of that extraordinary day on his haggard and sunken face.