Une Page d'Amour.
FLORENT, elder son of a widow who took as her second husband M. Quenu,
who, however, died three years later, leaving a son. Florent was a
gentle, studious youth, and his mother lavished all her affection on
him, dying in the end from hardships endured in her struggle to keep
him at college in Paris. After her death Florent took young Quenu,
his half-brother, to live with him in Paris, giving up all thought of
continuing to attend the Law School, and taking pupils in order to find
means of sustenance. Years of hardship followed, and Florent became
imbued with Republican ideas. Two days after the _Coup d'Etat_ of 1851,
while the military were firing on the mob in the Boulevard Montmartre,
he was knocked down and stunned. When he recovered, he found that he was
lying beside the body of a young woman, whose blood had oozed from her
wounds on to his hands. He was horrified at the sight, and rushed away
to join a party of men who were throwing up barricades in an adjoining
street. Worn out with fatigue, he fell asleep, and on awakening found
himself in the hands of the police. His hands were still stained with
the blood of the young woman, and the authorities assumed that he was a
dangerous character.
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