His great anxiety as to the direction in which the wind was blowing, so that he might invariably range himself on the side of that party, which, in the hour of triumph, would be able to reward him munificently.
Unfortunately, he was groping in the dark.

Shut up in his far away province, without a guide, without any precise information, he felt quite lost.

While waiting for events to trace out a sure and certain path, he preserved the enthusiastic republican attitude which he had assumed from the very first day.

Thanks to this demeanour, he remained at the Sub-Prefecture; and his salary was even raised.

Burning, however, with the desire to play a prominent part, he persuaded a bookseller, one of Vuillet's rivals, to establish a democratic journal, to which he became one of the most energetic contributors.