Part 21 (1/2)
”Indeed!” was the bland rejoinder; ”and has a manifesto of this decision been issued to the people?”
”It has; and it instantly called forth a counter manifesto from the electoral committee of the Twelfth Arrondiss.e.m.e.nt, expressing very natural astonishment that, at the same time the opposition abandoned the banquet, they had not abandoned their seats in the Chamber, and inviting them so to do at once.”
”And the Ministry?” anxiously asked M. Thiers.
”Will to-morrow be impeached, Monsieur!”
”Ah! indeed! indeed!” cried the smart little aspirant, gleefully rubbing his hands.
At that moment General Lamoriciere, the brother-in-law of Thiers, who owed so much to the house of Orleans, hastily approached.
”I come straight from the Tuileries,” he said, with considerable excitement. ”General Jacqueminot has just issued an order of the day, as commander-in-chief of the National Guard, appealing to them as the const.i.tutional protectors of the Throne to take no part in the banquet.
Orders have, also, been issued for the rappel to be beaten at dawn, in the Quartier St. Honore, the scene of the contemplated procession. But it's all folly to rely on the National Guard. They are of the people.
Only the Munic.i.p.al Guard and the troops of the Line can be relied on in the civil conflict, which is sure to come to-morrow.”
”And the Ministers, what do they?” asked Thiers.
”Oh! they are not idle,” replied the soldier. ”The bastilles are armed, and those of Montrouge and Aubervilliers are provisioned. The horse-artillery at Vincennes are ready, on the instant, to gallop into the capital. Seventy additional pieces of ordnance are now entering the barrieres. The Munic.i.p.al Guard are supplied with ball-cartridges. The troops concentrated at sunrise to-morrow will not be less than one hundred thousand strong. With these men in the forts and faithful, the city can be starved in three days, National Guard and all, if rebellious. Now is the crisis in which to test the remarkable admission of M. Duchatel, in May, '45, that the bastilles of Paris were designed to 'fortify order.' We shall see, we shall see!”
”And the Marshal Duke of Islay--where is he?” quietly asked Marrast, with a significant shrug and smile.
At this mention of his bitter foe, a frown lowered on the fine face of Lamoriciere, as he briefly and sternly replied:
”With the King, Monsieur--General Bugeaud is with the King. But they mistake, Monsieur. Eugene Cavaignac is the man for this emergency.
Bugeaud is a soldier--a mere soldier--Cavaignac is a statesman--a Napoleon! Paris will discriminate between the two one day, and that shortly.”
And with an abrupt military salute the conqueror of Algeria walked away, followed by his little brother-in-law, who seemed yet shorter and more insignificant at the side of his towering and graceful form. At the same moment, Ledru Rollin entered in great agitation, and, having glanced hastily around, as if in search of some one in the a.s.semblage, advanced straight to the journalist and grasped his hand.
”By heavens, Armand, I think the hour has arrived!”
”Whence do you come?” was the quick question.
”From the Boulevards, where I left Flocon, Louis Blanc and M. Dantes, with the people. I tell you, Armand, the people are ripe--ripe! The Ministerial ordinances prohibiting the banquet have kindled a flame wherever they have gone. The pitiful manifesto of the opposition and the counter manifesto of the Twelfth Arrondiss.e.m.e.nt have only served to fan this flame into fury. It has been our care to restrain and direct, not to excite. It is dark and cold without, Armand; the winter wind howls dismally along the streets, the sleet freezes as it falls and the furious blast almost extinguishes the torches by which, at the corners and at the cafes, the different manifestoes of the day are being read to the eager throngs, on whose faces, in the flare of the blood-red light, can be perceived the fury of their hearts. The people, at length, are ripe! To-morrow all Paris will be in arms!”
While Ledru Rollin was thus speaking, Louis Blanc entered and quietly approached, courteously saluting his acquaintances on his way, and stopping to exchange a few words with Madame Dantes, who inquired with considerable anxiety for her husband.
”I have this moment left him, Madame,” said Louis Blanc. ”Be a.s.sured, he is safe and well. Ah! how glorious to be an object of solicitude to one like you!” he added, with a smile.
The lady smiled also, and offered an appropriate jest in reply to the gallantry of the distinguished author, as he moved on to join his friends.
”The Ministry provokes its fate!” he said, in a low tone, as he approached. ”'Whom the G.o.ds would destroy, they first make mad.' These men suffered seventy reform banquets all over France. The seventy-first one they prohibit, and that, too, by the exhumation of an old despotic edict of 1790. This is exactly what we would have. It was the first, not the last banquet they should have suppressed. Barrot was right to-day, in the Chamber, when he said that had this manifestation been suffered the people would have become tranquil.”
”Tranquil, indeed!” cried Ledru Rollin. ”That's exactly what we have apprehended! No--no--it is too late! This Reform Banquet was, at first, but an insignificant thing. In it we now recognize the commencement of a revolution. The various announcements and postponements of this banquet have caused an agitation among the ma.s.ses favorable to our wishes, and the threats and obstinacy of the Ministry have completed the work. The hopes, fears, doubts and disappointments attending this affair have put the mind of all Paris in a ferment, and excited pa.s.sions of which we may take immediate advantage.”
”Aye!” cried Louis Blanc, ”we may now do what I have always wished and counseled--we, the Communists, may now take advantage of a movement, in the origin or inception of which we had no hand.”
”True, most true!” observed Marrast; ”this is the work of the Dynastics--Thiers, Barrot and the rest--the commencement of a reform under the law which we design to make a revolution paramount to all law.”
”They begin to fear already that they have gone too far, those discreet men!” said Louis Blanc, smiling bitterly. ”Did you observe how they shuffled to-night at M. Barrot's, and finally resolved to abandon the banquet, but, as a sop to the people, pledged themselves to impeach the Ministry?”
”Ah! ha! ha!” laughed Ledru Rollin; ”just as if their abandonment of the banquet is to keep the people away from it to-morrow, any more than the Ministerial ordinances! Why, not one man in ten thousand knows of the existence of these manifestoes! But the faubourgs have been promised a holiday for a fortnight past, and they don't intend to be put off again.”