Page 1443 - les-miserables

were no less moved than the faubourgs. A cafe in the Rue
Saint-Hyacinthe and the wine-shop of the Seven Billiards,
Rue des Mathurins-Saint-Jacques, served as rallying points
for the students. The Society of the Friends of the A B C af-
filiated to the Mutualists of Angers, and to the Cougourde
of Aix, met, as we have seen, in the Cafe Musain. These
same young men assembled also, as we have stated already,
in a restaurant wine-shop of the Rue Mondetour which was
called Corinthe. These meetings were secret. Others were as
public as possible, and the reader can judge of their bold-
ness from these fragments of an interrogatory undergone
in one of the ulterior prosecutions: ‘Where was this meet-
ing held?’ ‘In the Rue de la Paix.’ ‘At whose house?’ ‘In the
street.’ ‘What sections were there?’ ‘Only one.’ ‘Which?’
‘The Manuel section.’ ‘Who was its leader?’ ‘I.’ ‘You are too
young to have decided alone upon the bold course of at-
tacking the government. Where did your instructions come
from?’ ‘From the central committee.’
The army was mined at the same time as the population,
as was proved subsequently by the operations of Beford,
Luneville, and Epinard. They counted on the fifty-second
regiment, on the fifth, on the eighth, on the thirty-seventh,
and on the twentieth light cavalry. In Burgundy and in the
southern towns they planted the liberty tree; that is to say, a
pole surmounted by a red cap.
Such was the situation.
The Faubourg Saint-Antoine, more than any other group
of the population, as we stated in the beginning, accentu-
ated this situation and made it felt. That was the sore point.

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