Part 22 (2/2)
”I am delighted to meet you all, and to meet you to-night, or, rather, this morning,” said Dantes, warmly, ”in order that I may render you an account of my stewards.h.i.+p for the past six hours. They have been hours big with fate; and the first day of Republican France has already commenced. Messieurs, we can no longer remain blind to the fact that the long looked for--hoped for--expected hour has come--the hour to strike--strike home for liberty and for France! To-morrow the streets of Paris will swarm with blouses!--the Ma.r.s.eillaise will be heard!--barricades rise!--the Ministry be impeached! Next day the National Guards will fraternize with the people!--blood will flow!--the Ministry resign! On the third, the King abdicates!--the Tuileries are surrendered!--a Regency is refused!--a Republic is declared! And this day, two weeks hence, liberty will be shouted in the streets of Vienna and Berlin, and every throne in Europe will tremble! The honors of prophecy are easily won,” continued the speaker, with a significant smile that lighted up his features, pale with enthusiasm and exhaustion, ”when the problem of seventeen years approaches solution with mathematical certainty!”
”Are our plans all complete?” asked Louis Blanc.
”So far as human forethought or power could render them so, our efforts have, I trust, been effectual,” was the reply. ”Yet the events of every hour will induce changes, and render indispensable policy now undreamed of. Ah! Messieurs, we must none of us sleep now! Not a moment must escape our vigilance! Not an advantage must be sacrificed! We can afford to lose nothing! Without leaders, the people are blind! Not, for an instant, must they be abandoned! To-morrow, let the ma.s.ses gather at different points! Next day let barricades choke the Boulevards; and, if the conflict come not, be it precipitated--provoked! Thursday, an hundred thousand men must invest the Tuileries, and a Provisional Government be declared in the Chamber of Deputies! The Bourbons will then be in full flight, and France will be free! And now, Messieurs, will you permit me to suggest the propriety of our separation? Yonder Ministerial Secretary has had his eye upon us ever since he entered.”
The expediency of the suggestion of M. Dantes was at once perceived; the conspirators parted and one after the other, by different routes, shortly disappeared. As for M. Dantes, he threw himself carelessly in the way of the Ministerial Secretary to whom he had alluded, who was no other than our friend Lucien Debray, and saluted him with most marked and winning courtesy.
”Will the Ministerial Secretary suffer me to compliment him upon his indefatigable industry and exertions to-night to fortify order in Paris and sustain the administration?”
Debray bowed somewhat confusedly at this remark, and having returned a diplomatic reply, from which neither himself nor any one else could have elicited an idea, M. Dantes continued the conversation.
”Let me see, it is now nearly three o'clock,” he said, consulting his repeater; ”at half-past two you received an order, signed by the Duke of Montpensier, and directed to the War Ministry, commanding that seventy-two additional pieces of artillery be transported from Vincennes to Paris before dawn. That order was issued, and the ordnance is now on the boulevard!”
”How!” exclaimed the astonished Secretary.
”At Vincennes, the horses of the flying artillery stand harnessed in their stalls! All night infantry have been pouring into Paris, and, obedient to midnight orders, every railway will disgorge, at dawn, additional troops!”
”Are you a magician?” asked the astonished Secretary.
”Shall I reveal to you the Ministerial tactics for the morrow's apprehended insurrection?” coolly asked Dantes, with a smile. ”The salons of the Tuileries have not been deserted to-night. 'Can you quell an insurrection, General?' asked the King of the Marshal Duke of Islay.
'I can kill thirty thousand men,' was the humane answer. 'And I, sire, can preserve order in Paris without killing a score,' said Marshal Gerard, the hero of Antwerp, 'if I can rely on my men.' 'What is your plan, Marshal?' asked the King. Shall I give you the Marshal's reply, my friend?”
”You were present--you know all!” exclaimed Debray.
”Not quite all,” thought Dantes, ”but I shall before we part. Well,”
continued he, aloud, ”the Marshal's strategy was this--exceedingly simple and exceedingly efficacious, too, provided, to use the Marshal's own words, he can rely on his men. It is this: Occupy the Tuileries, the Hotel de Ville, the Halles, the Louvre and other prominent points with a heavy reserve of infantry and artillery, and sweep the boulevards, and the Rues St. Honore, de Rivoli, St. Martin, St. Denis, Montmartre and Richelieu with cavalry. A simple plan, is it not? Almost as simple as that of the insurrectionists themselves--a barricade on every street and one hundred thousand men in the Place du Carrousel!”
”The Government will not yield, Monsieur!” said Debray, firmly. ”The Minister is unshaken. To crush an unarmed mob cannot severely tax the most skillful generals in Europe.”
”True, they are unarmed,” returned Dantes, with apparent seriousness.
”Their leaders should have thought of that--arms are so easily provided--but then they can rely on their men!”
”We have yet to see that!” replied Debray, with some asperity.
”True, we have yet to see it. It is only a matter of belief now; then it will be a matter of knowledge. Seeing is knowing,” added M. Dantes, with his peculiar smile. ”But, pray, a.s.sure me, M. Debray, are the Ministry and their advisers, indeed, sanguine of the issue to-morrow!”
”They are certain!” replied the Secretary, with energy. Then, feeling that he had, perhaps, made a dangerous revelation, he quickly added: ”I have the honor, Monsieur, to wish you a very good night! It is late!”
”Say, rather, it is early, Monsieur!” replied Dantes. ”I have the honor to wish you a very good morning!”
The Secretary returned the courtesy, turned away, and, after exchanging a few words with M. Thiers, disappeared.
”They are certain, then!” soliloquized M. Dantes, as Debray quitted the salon. ”I was sure I should know all before he left.”
Then, rejoining Mercedes, who was patiently awaiting him, they stepped into their carriage, as the drowsy tones of the watchman rose on the misty air, ”Past four o'clock, and all is well!”
<script>