Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/293

BOOK X.] But vainly comments of a calmer mind

Promised soft peace and sweet forgetfulness.

The place, all hushed and silent as it was,

Appeared unfit for the repose of night,

Defenceless as a wood where tigers roam.

With early morning towards the Palace-walk

Of Orleans eagerly I turned; as yet

The streets were still; not so those long Arcades;

There, 'mid a peal of ill-matched sounds and cries,

That greeted me on entering, I could hear

Shrill voices from the hawkers in the throng,

Bawling, "Denunciation of the Crimes

Of Maximilian Robespierre;" the hand,

Prompt as the voice, held forth a printed speech,

The same that had been recently pronounced,

When Robespierre, not ignorant for what mark

Some words of indirect reproof had been

Intended, rose in hardihood, and dared

The man who had an ill surmise of him

To bring his charge in openness; whereat,

When a dead pause ensued, and no one stirred,

In silence of all present, from his seat

Louvet walked single through the avenue,

And took his station in the Tribune, saying,