The Girondin Author:Hilaire Belloc General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1912 Original Publisher: Doubleday, Page Subjects: Fiction / Fantasy / General Fiction / Fantasy / Historical Fiction / Historical Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy th... more »e General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. In "which the Sovereign People play the Fool. "COR the next few minutes they strode side by side in silence, the others at their heels. The street upon that August night was oppressive with a heavier air than Boutroux had expected upon leaving that closed, packed, and heated lamp-lit hall. A complete stillness presaged thunder, and one could just see to the northward, above the broad river, high banks of cloud making a black emptiness against the few stars of the zenith. They all went on together through another hundred yards of narrow ways, to where an old arch spanned a lane -- on the way to the broad quays; there the little group would disperse, but on their way it was their business to cross through the courtyard of an inn which, in the labyrinth of the old town, the thoroughfare skirted from one arched house to another, and the courtyardwas a rectangle of uneven pavement lying to one side of the kennel. As they came to this through the tunnel of the arch, they heard voices and movement in the recessed courtyard beyond : they saw the glare of great lamps contrasting with the tiny glimmer of the oil lantern which the Corporation maintained slung above that open way, and Boutroux heard Miltiades call over his shoulder to his companions that it must be the Paris courier with news. Two or three score men, not more, of every age and dress, were gathered in a little group round the high carriage with its tarpaulin already cast over it and its stack of unlowered...« less