And the Senator, majestically removing his hat, waved it slowly around his head seven times. At the seventh whirl his fingers slipped, and a great gust of wind caught the hat and blew it far out into the air. It fell. A deep groan of horror burst forth from the multitude, so deep, so long, so terrible that the Senator turned pale. A hundred thousand heads upturned; two hundred thousand arms waved furiously in the air. The tide of new-comers flowing up the other streets filled the Place to overflowing; and the vast host of people swayed to and fro, agitated by a thousand passions. All this was the work of but a short time. "Come," said the Senator, "this is getting beyond a joke." There was a sudden movement among the people at the foot of the column. The Senator leaned over to see what it was. At once a great cry came up, like the thunder of a cataract, warningly, imperiously, terribly. The Senator drew back confounded. Suddenly he advanced again. He shook his head deprecatingly, and waved his arms as if to disclaim any evil motives which they might impute to him. But they did not comprehend him. Scores of stiff gens d'armes, hundreds of little soldiers, stopped in their rush to the foot of the column to shake their fists and scream at him. "Now if I only understood their doosid lingo," thought the Senator. "But"--after a pause--"it wouldn't be of no account up here. And what an awkward fix," he added, "for the father of a family to stand hatless on the top of a pillory like this! Sho!" There came a deep rumble from the hollow stairway beneath him, which grew nearer and louder every moment. "Somebody's coming," said the Senator. "Wa'al, I'm glad. Misery loves company. Perhaps I can purchase a hat." In five minutes more the heads of twenty gens d'armes shot up through the opening in the top of the pillar, one after another, and reminded the Senator of the "Jump-up-Johnnies" in children's toys. Six of them seized him and made him prisoner. The indignant Senator remonstrated, and informed them that he was an American citizen. His remark made no impression. They did not understand English. The Senator's wrath made his hair fairly bristle. He contented himself, however, with drawing up the programme of an immediate war between France and the Great Republic. It took an hour for the column to get emptied. It was choked with people rushing up. Seven gentlemen fainted, and three escaped with badly sprained limbs. During this time the Senator remained in the custody of his captors. At last the column was cleared. The prisoner was taken down and placed in a cab. He saw the dense crowd and heard the mighty murmurs of the people. He was driven away for an immense distance. It seemed miles. At last the black walls of a huge edifice rose before him. The cab drove under a dark archway. The Senator thought of the dungeons of the Inquisition, and other Old World horrors of which he had heard in his boyhood. ***