"I bring to your notice the _citoyen_ Gamelin, commendable alike for his talents and for his patriotism. I have made it my duty to make known to you a patriot whose principles are good and his conduct steadfast in the right line of revolution. You will not let slip the opportunity of being useful to a Republican.... This letter I carried there and then to the President Herman, who received me with an exquisite politeness and signed your appointment on the spot. The thing is done." After a moment's pause: "_Citoyenne_," said Gamelin, "though I have not a morsel of bread to give my mother, I swear on my honour I accept the duties of a juror only to serve the Republic and avenge her on her foes." The _citoyenne_ thought this but a cold way of expressing gratitude and considered the sentiment high-flown. The young man was no adept, she suspected, at graceful courtesies. But she was too great an admirer of youth not to excuse some little lack of polish. Gamelin was a handsome fellow, and that was merit enough in her eyes. "We will form him," she said to herself. So she invited him to her suppers to which she welcomed her friends every evening after the theatre. "You will meet at my house men of wit and talent,--Elleviou, Talma, the _citoyen_ Vigee, who turns bouts-rimes with a marvellous aptitude. The _citoyen_ Francois read us his 'Pamela' the other day, the piece rehearsing at the present moment at the _Theatre de la Nation_. The style is elegant and chaste, as everything is that comes from the _citoyen_ Francois' pen. The plot is touching; it brought tears to all our eyes. It is the young _citoyenne_ Lange who is to take the part of 'Pamela.'" "I believe it if you say so, _citoyenne_," answered Gamelin, "but the _Theatre de la Nation_ is scarcely National and it is hard on the _citoyen_ Francois that his works should be produced on the boards degraded by the contemptible verses of a Laya; the people has not forgotten the scandal of the _Ami des Lois_...." "Nay, _citoyen_ Gamelin, say what you will of Laya; he is none of my friends." It was not purely out of kindness that the _citoyenne_ had employed her credit to get Gamelin appointed to a much envied post; after what she had done for him and what peradventure she might come to do for him in the future, she counted on binding him closely to her interests and in that way securing for herself a protector connected with a tribunal she might one day or another have to reckon with; for the fact is, she was in constant correspondence with the French provinces and foreign countries, and at that date such a circumstance was ground enough for suspicion. "Do you often go to the theatre, _citoyen_?" As she asked the question, Henry, the dragoon, entered the room, looking more charming than the youthful Bathyllus. A brace of enormous pistols was passed through his belt. He kissed the fair _citoyenne's_ hand. Turning to him: