Part 70 (1/2)

”And now, dear colleagues,” interrupted Regnier, ”let us make haste. The day is nearly gone, and we have not a moment to lose. Let us go on. Who will undertake to prepare the letters of notification?”

”I,” volunteered Lahary, their host. ”I shall see the inspectors of the hall, who are ours. They are all ready to sell themselves.”

”My dear Lucien, you will make it your duty to signify to the General the result of our deliberations?” asked Regnier.

”I am going at once to my brother's, on Victory Street,” answered the young man.

”Who,” Regnier continued, ”will post the inspectors of the hall to have the guards doubled to-morrow?”

”I; and I shall reinforce the posts with spies,” replied Cornet.

”My other colleagues and I,” Regnier went on, ”shall part.i.tion among us the task of visiting our friends at once, at their homes, and informing them of the motive of to-morrow's special session.”

”We ought above all to caution them to keep the strictest secrecy about the affair,” counseled Boulay, from the Meurthe district. ”Otherwise it will get noised about, and to-morrow we will see the republican minority march into the Council with their bothersome questions.”

”It must be an absolute secret, and I particularly recommend this to our friends,” a.s.sented Regnier.

”And I,” Fouche added, ”I shall go teach their lesson to my spies and agents of police, all blackguards and off-scourings, willing to do anything, if they are well paid.”

Meanwhile Desmarais, aside, was saying in Lucien's ear: ”And so, to-morrow evening the greatest captain of modern times, your ill.u.s.trious brother, that grand man clad in the dictators.h.i.+p which he alone can wield, will decide the form of government it pleases him to bestow upon France. We shall behold once more the glorious days of the monarchy.”

”How! the dictators.h.i.+p is to fall on Bonaparte!” cried Councillor Herwin, in surprise.

”We certainly shall not allow General Bonaparte to decide alone on the form of the government!” declared Cornet.

”What a stupid a.s.s this Desmarais is!” said young Bonaparte to himself.

”Messieurs,” he added aloud, ”I give you my word of honor as a man, my brother has no other ambition than to place his genius and his sword at the service of the Council of Ancients. He is outspokenly republican, and has no thoughts of a dictators.h.i.+p.”

Despite the rea.s.suring effect of Lucien Bonaparte's words, his fellow conspirator Regnier thought it wisest also to jump into the breach. ”We won't occupy ourselves, dear colleagues,” he said, ”with a premature question. Let us first turn down the Const.i.tution of the year III, and p.r.o.nounce the dissolution of the Council of Five Hundred which sustains it. That done, we shall take further counsel; but first let us triumph over the common enemy. And now, gentlemen--till to-morrow!”

To cries of ”Till to-morrow!” ”Till to-morrow, the day of great events!”

the conspirators dispersed.

CHAPTER V.

THE EIGHTEENTH BRUMAIRE.

By eight o'clock on the morning of the 18th Brumaire, year VIII (November 9, 1799), the Council of Ancients were a.s.sembled in their hall. Several members of the republican minority, which had not been notified of the session, had nevertheless come to the a.s.sembly, warned by public rumor of something unusual in the wind. These latter gathered in a group about the tribunal, engaged in animated conversation.

Lemercier, presiding officer of the Council, sounded his bell; silence fell upon the a.s.sembly, and the members took their seats.

”Messieurs, our colleague Cornet, chairman of the Committee of Inspectors, has the floor,” he said.

Cornet mounted the tribunal and began: ”Representatives of the people:--The confidence you have reposed in your Committee of Inspectors has laid it under the obligation of watching over your individual safety, with which the public safety is so closely bound up. For, when the representatives of a nation are menaced in their persons, so that they do not enjoy in their deliberations the most absolute independence, it is no longer a Republic. Your Committee of Inspectors knows that conspirators are pouring into Paris in swarms; that those who are already here do but await the signal to bare their poniards against the representatives of the nation, against the highest authorities and members of the Republic. In presence of the danger which encompa.s.ses you, Representatives of the people, your committee felt it inc.u.mbent upon it to call you together in special session to inform you thereon; it felt it to be its duty to spur the deliberations of the Council on in deciding what part it was to play in these circ.u.mstances. The Council of Ancients holds in its hands the means of saving the country and liberty; it would be doubting its prudence, it would be doubting its wisdom, to think that it will not grapple the problem with its accustomed courage and energy.”

”It is inconceivable that neither I nor several of my colleagues received notice of this convocation of the a.s.sembly. This omission--voluntary or involuntary--must be explained,” interposed Montmayon, a member of the minority.

”You have not been given the floor!” yelled President Lemercier. ”Your motion is out of order. I give the floor to Monsieur Regnier.”