He had kept just a sufficiency of reason--or was it merely blind instinct ?--to avoid the places where the night patrols of the National Guard might be on the watch.

He avoided the Place du Carrousel, also the quay, and struck sharply to his right until he reached the facade of St.Germain l'Auxerrois.
Another effort; round the corner, and there was the house at last.
He was like the hunted creature now that has run to earth.

Up the two flights of stone stairs, and then the pull at the bell; a moment of tense anxiety, whilst panting, gasping, almost choked with the sustained effort and the strain of the past half-hour, he leaned against the wall, striving not to fall.
Then the well-known firm step across the rooms beyond, the open door, the hand upon his shoulder.
After that he remembered nothing more..