All in a garden fair; the simple story of three boys ... - University Library

ALL L\ A GARDEN FAIR. 107
pan, which scorches and broils— ^yes, still, after
twenty years and more—into the fire, which
burns. I would cross the Channel. I would
go to the gendarmerie of Calais. I would say
—*' Behold me !
it is Pliilipon, the man of the
Barricades ; you would have sent him to
Cayenne. He gives himself up, he surrenders
send him, then, to exile." Yes, my friends, but
for Claire, who would weep, I would brave the
danger of the voyage, I would be a convict
with my brethren.'
He forgot that the Emjiire which would
have sent him there was gone, and that there
was no more any reason why he should go to
Cayenne at all, even if he did land at Calais.
But the habit of regarding himself still as a
refugee was too strong. Everybody knew, of
course, that lie was a French exile ; it was
rumoured that an inunense price had been set
upon his head, and it was believed that tlie
Emperor— while Sedan was yet afar ofT—liad
often declared that he should know no rest
till Hector rhilii)on was in a dungeon.
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