"Brother," said the fantastic leader, "we've lost our way.

Will you lead us home again ?" "It is a long travel," he answered, after the fashion of their own symbols.

"There are high hills to climb; there may be wild beasts in the way; and storms come down the mountains." "We have strong hearts, and you have a silver sword, brother." "I cannot see your faces, to know if you are true, my children," he answered.
Instantly the clothes flew off, masks fell, pumpkins came crashing to the ground, the stilts of the marshals dropped, and thirty men stood upon the drays in crude military order, with muskets in their hands and cockades in their caps.

At that moment also, a flag--the Tricolor--fluttered upon the staff at Valmond's window.

The roll of a drum came out of the street somewhere, and presently the people fell back before sixty armed men, marching in columns, under Lagroin, while from the opposite direction came Lajeunesse with sixty others, silent all, till they reached the drays and formed round them slowly.
Valmond stood watching intently, and the people were very still, for this seemed like real life, and no burlesque.