Bab Bab 24 · A CAPITAL

. A CAPITAL

What a noise, what busy people! What ideas for the

future in a brain of twenty! What distraction offered by

love.--_Barnave_.

Finally he saw some black walls near a distant mountain. It was the

citadel of Besançon. "How different it would be for me," he said

with a sigh, "if I were arriving at this noble military town to be

sub-lieutenant in one of the regiments entrusted with its defence."

Besançon is not only one of the prettiest towns in France, it abounds

in people of spirit and brains. But Julien was only a little peasant,

and had no means of approaching distinguished people.

He had taken a civilian suit at Fouqué's, and it was in this dress that

he passed the drawbridge. Steeped as he was in the history of the siege

of 1674, he wished to see the ramparts of the citadel before shutting

himself up in