Ten minutes after the withdrawal of the Republicans, they brought word to the Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom of the resignation of the members of the Municipal Commission. Underlying this resignation the Duc d'Orléans discovered the presence of a complete ministry all ready made. It was composed of the following: Dupont (of l'Eure), Minister of Justice; Baron Louis, of Finance; General Gérard, of War; Casimir Périer, Home Minister; de Rigny, of Marine; Bignon, for Foreign Affairs; Guizot, for Public Instruction. But, even before this list had reached the Palais-Royal, one of the newlyappointed ministers had already sent in his resignation—namely, Casimir Périer. Casting a glance in the direction of Versailles, he had seen that Charles X., who had only just left Saint-Cloud, had not yet reached Rambouillet. It was a very bold act to show one's colours to a new Government when the old régime was still close to the new. Ambition had led him to accept his post, but fear made him decline it. M. Casimir Périer rushed off to Bonnelier and begged him to strike out his name from the list. But it was too late; the list had gone, and Bonnelier could not do anything beyond suggesting an erratum in theMoniteur, which Périer accepted as better than nothing. M. de Broglie's name was inserted in the place made vacant by Casimir Périer's resignation.
Was it not a strange thing that men who were to occupy high positions in the future reign dared not risk their names, when so many others who would gain nothing by the great change had been willing to risk their heads in the cause? True, those who had risked their heads had done so for France and not for Louis-Philippe.
The next morning, when I went to call on the new lieutenant-general, he was talking with Vatout and Casimir Delavigne, whom he left to come across to me. Already acquainted with my expedition to Soissons, he held out his hand and said—
"Monsieur Dumas, you have just enacted your very finest drama!"
At that moment, General La Fayette was suffering one of the most terrible assaults at the Hôtel de Ville that had hitherto been directed against him.
Now let me relate what had become of Charras and Lothon: I take some pride, as will be understood, in dwelling at greater length upon the men whose names were not to melt away with the smoke of the battlefield. We saw them leaving the Hôtel de Ville, bearers of an order from Mauguin and a proclamation from La Fayette. We forgot to tell how Lothon, whom we left on the 29th, stretched on the pavement at the Palais-Royal, happened to be at the Hôtel de Ville with Charras on the 30th. Lothon (alas! he is now dead!) was one of those rare menwhose heart was as good as his head, whom powder intoxicates, who are excited by noise, and who probably love danger for its own sake more than for the honour it may bring. When Lothon had lain on the pavement for nearly an hour, he was picked up for dead; a bullet had pierced his forehead and seven others had riddled his hat, which had fallen beside him. The hat might have been taken as a target. Whilst he was being carried away to be buried along with others at the Louvre, he moved his head slightly; and this protest, feeble though it was, against being treated as was evidently intended by his bearers, proved incontestable. A soldier of the National Guard took him in, dressed his wounds, put him to bed, and then left him to go in search of news, never supposing that a man who had had his head broken by a bullet would dream of getting up to return to the firing, should there by chance be fighting still going on in any corner of Paris. However, that was Lothon's first idea. Scarcely had he recovered consciousness than he re-dressed himself, buckled on his sword again (that sword which he had seized from the properties of the théâtre de l'Odéon, as was evident from its cross handle and sheath, which had lost its leathern end), and, in spite of the outcries made by the wife of his host, he set off, stumbling like a drunken man. Charras found him that evening on returning home. Lothon could not recollect half what he had done, or anything at all of where he had been. But next day he felt well enough to rejoin Charras at the Hôtel de Ville. We have seen how they were deputed to go and fetch the 4th Regiment of artillery, in garrison at la Fère. For three days Charras had been penniless. When the insurrection had broken out he possessed fifteen francs and a bill of exchange for a hundred crowns, sent him by his father, a Paris banker; but since the 26th every bank had been closed, and if his bill had not been accepted by Laffitte, he would certainly not have obtained from the boldest bill-broker of Paris fifty francs out of his hundred crowns. Fifteen francs went on the 26th and 27th; on the 28th he got food where he could; on the 29th he dined at the Hôtel de Ville, with the rest of Paris; finally, on the morning of the 30th, Lionel del'Aubespin, grandson of La Fayette, shared his purse with Charras. When he and Lothon started for la Fère, they found themselves the possessors of twenty francs! They could not afford to take post on that small amount; so the two heroes asked for a letter to the new director of posts, M. Chardel, who had been appointed, the day before, by Baude and Arago. By virtue of this letter, M. Chardel gave them an order to the various posting-masters along the route, putting horses at their service, and he himself gave them the two best cobs out of his stable. Charras and Lothon set off at as fast a gallop as the barricades would allow; two or three shots were fired at them because they were taken for officers of the Royal Guard attempting flight; but they reached Bourget, and drew up at the livery stables of the same posting-master who had given me horses and a carriage an hour previously.
The roads to Soissons and to la Fère both start together, and only divide at the Gonesse and at a spot called thePatte-d'oie; here the bifurcation on the right leads to Dammartin, Villers-Cotterets and Soissons, and the other to Senlis, Compiègne, Noyon and la Fère. The worthy patriot of whom the two young men inquired for saddle-horses perceived at once that they (Lothon especially) could not manage half that distance at full speed; he brought out a second trap, which he horsed, and he despatched them in it, wishing them God-speed. This wish, like that of "Good hunting!" no doubt brought them misfortune. Lothon was the first to get into the trap, and, to make room for Charras, he had to raise his sword. Night began to fall, and Charras, not noticing the sword, the point of which, as we have mentioned, was poking out at the end of its sheath, suddenly felt the icy cold of steel through his armpit, and tried to fling himself forward; but Lothon took him by the shoulders, thinking he had lost his footing, and tried to draw him in farther towards his side. Charras in vain shrieked, "You are killing me, I say!" but Lothon could hear nothing because of the bandage round his head, which stopped up his ear, and continued to draw him closer on the sword-point. Luckily, Charras was able to make a violent effort, tore himself outof his companion's hands and fell into the arms of the post-master, who, seeing that something extraordinary was happening inside the trap, seconded Charras's efforts by drawing him backwards. They went back into the house, and Charras took off his coat, waistcoat and shirt. The steel had penetrated an inch and a half or so under the armpit, and blood was flowing freely. They scraped some tinder and plugged the wound with a wet handkerchief, and, thanks to this apparatus, kept in its place by the wounded man's arm, the bleeding was stopped. Lothon was in a state of desperation, but, as his despair led to nothing, Charras encouraged him to give it up. As they re-entered the carriage, the post-master asked them—
"Have you any arms besides your swords?"
"Upon my word, we haven't!" they replied.
Then the post-master went to a cupboard and brought out a couple of pistols, which he loaded and pushed into the tails of Charras's coat. I should like to mention this excellent fellow's name, but who knows whether his patriotism of 1830 might not get him into trouble in 1853? The two wounded men fell asleep, ordering the postillions to put the horses between the shafts. Generally, postillions proved true patriots, and, although Charras could not give them large tips out of his twenty francs, they acquitted themselves conscientiously, by driving fast and changing horses quickly. Moreover, the post-master of Bourget had advised the two young men to send a second postillion on ahead of them; since M. Chardel's order proscribed no limits, it cost them no more to do this. All went well as far as Ribécourt. Here they woke Charras.
"What is the matter?" asked the sleeper, rubbing his eyes.
"The post-master will not give us any horses," said the head-postillion, who had been obliged to stop there because of this refusal.
"What! the post-master won't give us horses!"
"No; he says he does not know anything about the Provisional Government."
Charras, who had been hunting for it long and vainly, very nearly said he did not know anything about it either; but this was not the moment for joking; time was flying. He left Lothon still asleep, who had not heard him when he cried out, "You are killing me!" and had therefore no right to hear anything else. Leaping from the trap, he ran to the post-master, who was furious at being waked at two in the morning, and stood on his doorstep with the evident intention of contesting the point.
"So you do not intend to give me horses?" asked Charras.
"That is so."
"In spite of the order from the Director of Posts?"
"I don't know this man Chardel!"
"Ah! So you do not know Chardel?"
"No."
Charras drew the proclamation from his pocket.
"Do you know that signature?"
"La Fayette? Not any more than the other!"
"No?"
"No!"
Charras next drew his pistols from his pocket, cocking them at the same moment as he placed them against the postmaster's breast—
"Ah!... Very well, do you recognise these?" he said.
"But, monsieur," exclaimed the man, "what are you going to do?"
"Going to do? By Jove! To kill you, if you don't give me horses!"
"But, monsieur, devil take it! men do not kill people like that ... they explain things."
"Yes, when they have time, which I have not."
The postillions, ranged behind the post-master, were grinning in the shadow, rubbing their hands and making signs to Charras to stick to it. They need not have been anxious on this score.
"Well, then, monsieur, if you take up such an attitude asthat, I must give you horses; but be very sure it is only because you compel me by force to do so."
"What does that matter to me so long as you give them me!"
"Horses for these gentlemen!" said the post-master, returning to his room and yielding the battlefield to Charras.
"And good ones, look you, postillions."
"Oh! don't be uneasy, young gentleman; we will see to that," replied the postillion. "Get back into your carriage and continue your nap.... You are going to Noyon?"
"To la Fère."
"It's all the same."
Charras returned to the carriage, and so great was his fatigue that he fell asleep again before the horses were harnessed. Probably the postillion kept his word, for when Charras woke again, they had passed Noyon and day had begun to appear. Annoyed at witnessing the dawn alone, he poked Lothon till he too awoke. The sky was superb, "and jocund day,"[2]to quote Shakespeare, stood "tiptoe on the misty mountain tops," ready to descend into the plain like a luminous cloud; the leaves on the trees whispered together; the golden corn swayed gracefully; and from the midst of the fast-ripening ears the lark, daughter of day, flew up with quick-beating wing, making the air resound with her clear, joyous song. The peasants opened their doors to inhale the morning breeze, and made ready to go to work or to market, to the fields or to the town.
"Diable!" exclaimed Charras. "Look at this countryside: it has not the least appearance of being in a state of revolution."
"No, indeed it has not!" replied Lothon.
"Do you suppose these folk know about Chardel, Mauguin and La Fayette?"
"I would rather not say."
"Hum!" said Charras, who fell into a train of reflection that was not exactly rose-coloured.
Lothon took advantage of Charras's ponderings to resume his slumbers. They reached Chauny. The town was just aspeaceful as the villages, the streets were as quiet as the fields! As a diver can feel the temperature of the water grow colder the deeper he plunges, so the farther they advanced into the provinces did they feel an ever-increasing frigidness take the place of the feverishness of Paris. Exactly the same experience happened to Charras as did to me: he reached the gates of la Fère determined to carry out his project, but filled with doubt as to how things would turn out.
He woke Lothon, who still slept, as they came nearer to the town. Soon they would find themselves confronted by the 4th Regiment of artillery, and the situation was sufficiently serious for them to face it with an attention fully wide awake. The gate was open, and the two young fellows went straight to the guard-house overlooking the gate. Lothon, with his black bandage over his eye and his hat placed over one ear on account of his wound, looked ten years older than he really was; moreover, his sword of the time of François I. aged him by another three centuries. Charras, who had been discharged from the École polytechnique four months previously, had allowed his moustache to grow since (this would not have been allowed at the École); with his borrowed coat too long and too large for him, his policeman's sword hung round him by a shoulder-belt instead of a proper sword-belt, his trousers all covered with the blood of a Swiss soldier—who, badly injured, had thrown himself into Charras's arms to prevent being despatched completely—Charras looked far more like a bandit than an honest man. But indeed to practised eyes neither of them looked like a student of the École polytechnique. However, all went well so long as they remained in the carriage. They had lowered the hood, and the soldiers on guard could see Lothon's tricoloured cockade, and the bunch of three-coloured ribbons which Charras had exchanged for the sleeves of the Swiss, a decoration all very well in Paris, but too eccentric for the provinces. The magic colours produced their usual effect: the sentinel presented arms, and the quarter-master who answered the summons addressed Lothon asmon officier.
"Well!" said Charras to Lothon, "so far things don't seem to be going badly."
"Yes," said Lothon, "but it is with the colonel we shall have to deal...."
"Ah! by Jove! then we shall see," said Charras.
"You are going to try and be very eloquent, I hope?"
"Rather! Hurrah for Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena, the Grand Army and the devil and his horns! I cannot help touching him, unless his heart be encircled with three layers of steel, as Horace says."
"And suppose it is?"
"In that case.... Ah! I don't know! But then ... Oh, hang it all, man, you worry me with all your 'ifs'!"
"Never mind. Just answer that question: suppose he isn't touched?"
"Well! Shan't we still have the Bourget post-master's spring crucifixes to fall back on? We will play on them. Upon my word and honour, anybody would think you did not know the air!"
"Of course, I do!"
"If so, why are you quibbling?"
"I wished to know if you had really decided on anything."
"Oh! I say, what humbug!"
This dialogue, as will be easily understood, took place in an undertone, whilst the quarter-master, who was to conduct the young men to the colonel's house, was preparing his military toilet. He returned and got into the carriage, which set off at full trot till it reached the colonel's house. At the gate, Charras, like the conscientious man he was, handed one of the pistols to Lothon.
"Good!" said Lothon, "thanks.... Give me the other one too now."
"What for?"
"To see if they are in good order and have not lost their primings.... Anyhow, come, give it me."
"Here it is."
"Now get out.... You can see the quarter-master is waiting for you."
Charras leapt down from the carriage, and they went upstairs to the first floor. At the door Charras turned round towards Lothon.
"What about the pistol?"
Lothon had stuffed it into his pocket.
"It is all right where it is: go on."
"What do you mean by 'it is all right where it is'?"
"Never mind: go on."
He pushed Charras into the anteroom. Lothon, just by chance, more prudent then than his comrade, had uncocked it. But they had chosen an unfortunate place to quarrel in, especially a quarrel of that nature. The two young men went on conversing mutely with their eyes, and a few seconds later found themselves inside the colonel's drawing-room. Colonel Husson was a man of forty, with strongly marked features and a resolute and proud expression, a real soldier type. He was chatting with one of the majors of his regiment. He received our two messengers politely but with reserve.
"What can we do for you, gentlemen?" he asked, after the preliminary interchange of compliments.
Charras in a few words related the story of the three days: the taking of the Louvre, the flight of the king and the nomination of the Provisional Government—the whole history of the Revolution, in short.
The two officers listened to the recital more and more coldly as he reached the end.
Charras deemed this was the right moment for producing the two papers from his pocket. He handed them both to the colonel. The one was in an envelope and sealed—that was Mauguin's letter; the other was simply folded in four—this was La Fayette's proclamation. By chance, the colonel began by breaking open first the sealed envelope containing Mauguin's letter. He read the first lines, then looked at the signature.
"Magin ... Maguin.... Who is this person?"
"Mauguin," replied Charras, "why, M. Mauguin, a member of the Provisional Government!"
"Mauguin?" the colonel repeated, looking at the major.
"Yes, a lawyer," the latter replied.
"A lawyer!" said the colonel, in tones that sent a shudder through Charras.
"Ah!" he said in a whisper to Lothon, "I believe we are done for!"
"I myself am sure of it!" said Lothon.
"Then now for our pistols!"
"Wait a bit ... there is time enough yet."
The colonel was reading the second despatch, and General La Fayette's name seemed to be correcting the bad impression made by the name of Mauguin. Had they but possessed a third letter signed by a second general they would have been saved. But, unluckily, they had no third letter.
"Well, gentlemen?" asked the colonel, when he had read the second letter.
"Well, colonel," Charras replied plainly, "the Provisional Government thought it was sending us to patriots; it seems that it was mistaken, that is all."
"Do you know, messieurs, to what this error of yours exposes you?"
"Why, yes!" said Charras; "to be shot."
"I am obliged to leave you, messieurs; give me your word of honour that you will not attempt to leave this room."
"Our parole?... Come now!... Have us shot, if you will,—you must answer for the responsibility of the execution to the Provisional Government,—but we will not give you our parole."
"At all events, give up your swords, then."
"No, no, no!"
The colonel bit his lips and said something in a low voice to the major and prepared to go out. Charras made a backward movement in order to touch Lothon, then said in a whisper—
"The pistol, for goodness' sake give me the pistol! You can see that this rascal means to have us shot!"
"Bah!" was Lothon's reply, "à la guerre comme à la guerre."
"You seem to take things very easy, you donkey; you are half dead as it is, and won't take much finishing off.... But, except for the hole you were imbecile enough to make in me, I am hale enough, and I have no desire to be killed like a chicken!"
"Oh! set your mind at rest!... They do not shoot people down like this without warning, you bet!"
Meanwhile, the colonel went away, and the two messengers were left with the major. The major seemed a better sort than the colonel; he had evidently remained, by his chiefs order, to make the young men talk and to find out whether all they had stated was really the truth. As their story was correct, there was no danger of their contradicting each other. Moreover, Lothon left the whole brunt of the conversation to Charras; for, as he was lounging on a sort of sofa, he fell asleep in five minutes' time. In the midst of the interview an officer appeared on the scene.
"Comrade," he said, addressing Charras, "I have come from the colonel, to whom you would not give your parole.... My instructions are not to let you out of my sight;... but as I am not a policeman—why there!..."
He unbuckled his sword and flung it into an arm-chair.
"You can do what you like!"
"Monsieur," said Charras, "our intention is not to quit la Fère, and in proof thereof look...."
And he pointed out to the officer Lothon sound asleep.
The colonel returned in an hour's time. He appeared very much excited and very irresolute. Suddenly he stopped in front of Charras.
"I will wager you are hungry?" he said.
Charras merely shrugged his shoulders and answered—
"That is a singular question to put to me, surely?"
"Ah!" said the colonel, "we must not let anyone die of hunger, not even prisoners."
"Yes, it is better to fatten them up before you shoot them, is it not?" remarked Charras.
"Who is talking of shooting you? Come," exclaimed the colonel, opening a door, "breakfast."
A table was brought in, fully laid as on the stage. The colonel departed from his usual custom and breakfasted in his drawing-room instead of his dining-room—or, rather, he did not breakfast, for he did not sit down to the table. Charras roused Lothon, who was in a bad temper at being waked, specially since he did not know for what purpose he had been awakened. When he knew that it was for breakfast, he softened. They had just finished the cutlets when the door opened quickly and a man of about fifty dressed in uniform appeared.
"Pardon, colonel," he said, "but I am Lieutenant-Colonel Duriveau of the Engineers and second in command at the École polytechnique under the Empire.... I have been told that you are keeping two of my old boys prisoners, and have come to see if it is so."
Then, addressing himself to Charras and Lothon, he said—
"Good-day, messieurs; I bid you welcome."
"Welcome?" repeated the colonel.
"Yes, yes, that is what I said.... And to you, colonel, I say that you have no right to detain these gentlemen. I am told they have been sent on a mission from the Provisional Government.... They are officers with a flag of truce, and it is the universal custom not to arrest those intrusted with missions of that nature."
So saying, he shook Charras's hand with such heartiness as to make him cry out, for it caused his wound to re-open.
"What is the matter?" asked Lieutenant-Colonel Duriveau.
"Nothing, nothing at all, merely that I have a wound under my arm."
"Indeed, and it looks as though your friend had one in his head, too.... We must have all these wounds dressed before anything else, colonel."
"I have thought of that, monsieur," replied the colonel, "and I do not know why the surgeon-major has not yet come."
At that moment he came in.
"Here, monsieur," the colonel said to him, "these are the young men I spoke of.... See if they require your services."
Charras wanted to refuse, but Lieutenant-Colonel Duriveau signed to him to allow it, and took the colonel and major away into an adjoining room. The surgeon-major first dressed Lothon's head; the bullet had penetrated to the bone, which it had twisted and left bare. He must have been bewitched to be out of his bed after receiving such an injury. The surgeon wanted to bleed the wounded man, but to this he positively objected.
"I may at any moment require the use of both my arms," he said, "so leave them intact.... My head is quite bad enough without other hurt!"
Then came Charras.
"Good gracious, monsieur," said the surgeon-major, "you had a lucky escape! An inch or two more to the left and you would have had the artery severed."
"And to think," Charras said, pointing to Lothon, "that it was that brute who did it for me with his François sword!"
"Come," said Lothon, "there you go, crying out about your blessed artery which is not even scratched!... I did not know you were as soft as that!"
Charras began laughing, when Lieutenant-Colonel Duriveau entered.
"All is going right," he whispered to Charras. "I will not leave you for a minute until you are outside the town."
There had just been a meeting of officers, who had decided that, whether with or without the colonel's participation, they would range themselves on the side of the Provisional Government. The colonel returned in half an hour's time.
"Messieurs," he said, "you must give me your word of honour to leave la Fère instantly, and then you shall be free."
"I will give you nothing of the kind," said Charras.
"You will not!"
"No."
"You will, at any rate, engage not to cause any disturbance in my regiment?"
"I will not.... I like your suggestions, indeed! We come in the name of the constituted Government, and it is we who possess authority, you who are rebels; we could do you a bad turn for having us arrested, and you ask us for our word of honour to quit la Fère, and not to try to influence your regiment.... Come now! Either shoot us or let us go free!"
"Well, then," said the colonel, "go to the devil with you!" and he held out his hand to them, laughing.
They both pressed his hand and went out, accompanied by Lieutenant-Colonel Duriveau, who, according to his promise, kept as close to them as a shadow.
It may be gathered that the town was in a state of excitement. The officer who had been set to mount guard over them left the house with them, and, after shaking hands at the door, set off at a run to rejoin his comrades. The carriage had returned to the posting-house, to which they wended their way. At every step of the road the young men received manifest tokens of sympathy. When they reached the post, they were rejoined by the major.
"Messieurs," he said to them, "the colonel begs you as a favour to go away; he gives you his word of honour that he and his regiment will yield allegiance to the Provisional Government.... But, at the least, you might allow him the credit for this adherence."
"Oh! if that is all," Charras and Lothon both exclaimed together, "by all means let us start!"
"One moment," said Lieutenant-Colonel Duriveau, "how are you off for money?"
Charras turned out his pockets; he had hardly five francs left out of Aubespin's twenty francs.
"How much would you like?" said the lieutenant-colonel,pulling out several bags of five-franc pieces from his trouser-pockets.
"A hundred francs," said Charras.
"Will that be enough?"
"Surely! we came with but twenty."
"Then we'll say a hundred."
And he handed a rouleau to Charras, who broke it in two as though it had been a stick of chocolate, and gave half or thereabouts to Lothon.
"Now for the carriage and horses!" shouted the two young men.
"Oh! the posting stage between here and Chauny is my affair. I am going to drive you," said a jovial-faced, sturdy-looking butcher, who had stationed himself in front of the post-house with his little spring cart, inside which five or six trusses of straw composed the seats, and he rolled up his sleeves; "and I guess," he added, "you will never have been driven so fast."
"Very well, thanks, comrade!" said Charras, he and Lothon seating themselves beside him.
"Here! postillion, follow us with the carriage!" they shouted. "Adieu, colonel!"
"Adieu, my lads!"
"Off we go!" cried the butcher, cracking his whip, "andVive la Charte! Vive La Fayette! Vive le Gouvernement Provisoire!Down with Charles X., the dauphin, Polignac and the whole lot of them! Houp!..."
And, as the butcher had promised, the cart whirled away as fast as a waterspout. At Chauny, they parted from the butcher and re-mounted their carriage. Next day, at ten in the morning, an hour after me, Charras and Lothon reached the Hôtel de Ville just at the moment when General La Fayette, who was always gallant, was kissing the hand of Mademoiselle Mante, who, accompanied by M. Samson and a third member, had come to lay the Comédie-Française under the protection of the nation. This deputation kept the two young men waiting for half an hour, during which time they acquaintedthemselves with what had happened since their departure: how the Duc d'Orléans was made lieutenant-general, and how Louis-Philippe was going to be made king.
"Ah! that is how matters stand," Lothon exclaimed to Charras; "well, you shall hear what I have to say to it all to old La Fayette!"
It was now Charras's turn to try and calm Lothon. But Lothon would not be quieted: his wound, the heat, the excitement, the little wine he had drunk, his refusal to be bled, all combined to send him into a state of delirium. Brain fever had set in. He entered the room where La Fayette was, hustling everybody who tried to prevent him; for, as I have mentioned, La Fayette was very carefully guarded. Charras followed Lothon. Then, crossing his arms over his breast, his hat that had been riddled into holes by the seven bullets thrown on the ground, his forehead bound up in the black bandage, his eyes flashing with fever, his cheeks purple with anger, the young fellow called the old man to account in terms which ought to have been taken down in shorthand to be properly reproduced, with respect to the liberty which had been bought at the price of much bloodshed, which the People had confided to him and which he had allowed himself to be robbed of by the chicanery and ambition of courtiers. He was so fine, so great, so eloquent, so full of untold poetic feeling, to the point even of frenzy, that no one dared interrupt him.
"General," Charras whispered to La Fayette, "forgive him.... You see he is delirious."
"Yes, yes," said La Fayette.
Then to Lothon—
"My friend—my young friend—there, there ... calm yourself!"
Then, turning round—
"Is there no doctor at hand to bleed this young man?" he asked.
Lothon heard the suggestion.
"To bleed me?" he exclaimed. "Oh! no, no! Since we have again lost liberty, my blood shall not flow by the lance ofa doctor ... but by the bayonets of the Royal Guard, under the bullets of the Swiss.... Leave me the blood in my veins, general; so long as the Bourbons remain in France, both Older and Younger Branches, I shall have need of it! Come, Charras. Come!"
He rushed from the room, leaving La Fayette thoughtful and troubled. Perhaps the words that had just fallen on the general's ear corresponded to the voice of his conscience; perhaps he had already reproached himself in the same way that Lothon had just done.
"I should like to be alone," he said.
And, before the door was closed, they could see him bury that fine and noble head between his hands, that head upon which the children of the Republic had just invoked the anathemas of posterity.
[1]As none of the above conversation has yet been reported entirely, I appeal to history and to the memories of persons who were present at the interview. As to the words spoken by Godefroy Cavaignac and the king's reply, I can certify their authenticity, as I wrote them down at the time, from Godefroy's own dictation, and he was quite incapable of untruthfulness.
[1]As none of the above conversation has yet been reported entirely, I appeal to history and to the memories of persons who were present at the interview. As to the words spoken by Godefroy Cavaignac and the king's reply, I can certify their authenticity, as I wrote them down at the time, from Godefroy's own dictation, and he was quite incapable of untruthfulness.
[2]Romeo and Juliet.
[2]Romeo and Juliet.
Letter of Charles X. to the Duc d'Orléans—A conjuring trick—Return of the Duc de Chartres to the Palais-Royal—Bourbons and Valois—Abdication of Charles X.—Preparations for the expedition of Rambouillet—An idea of Harel—The scene-shifters of the Odéon—Nineteen persons in one fiacre—Distribution of arms at the Palais-Royal—Colonel Jacqueminot
Letter of Charles X. to the Duc d'Orléans—A conjuring trick—Return of the Duc de Chartres to the Palais-Royal—Bourbons and Valois—Abdication of Charles X.—Preparations for the expedition of Rambouillet—An idea of Harel—The scene-shifters of the Odéon—Nineteen persons in one fiacre—Distribution of arms at the Palais-Royal—Colonel Jacqueminot
Meanwhile the Duc d'Orléans hid his grave preoccupation of mind beneath his affable manner that morning when he came up to me and told me I had produced my best drama. He had just received the answer to the letter which he had sent to Charles X. by the Duc de Mortemart.
My readers will recollect that letter, wherein he says to the old king, thathe had been brought to Paris by force; that he did not know what they wanted him to do, but that if he accepted power it would only be in the best interests ofTHE HOUSE. Only he did not specifywhat House.Did he mean in the interest of theHouse of Orléansor of theHouse of Bourbon? Re-read the sentence and you will see he reserves his choice.
Charles X. replied to this letter by a declaration couched as follows:—
"The king, desirous of putting a stop to the troubles that exist in the capital and in another part of France,relying especially on the sincere attachment of his cousin the Duc d'Orléans, appoints him Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom. The king, having seen fit to withdraw the Ordinances of 25 July, approves the assembling of the Chambers on 3 August, and he hopes they will be able to re-establish tranquillity in France. The king will await at Rambouillet the return of the person charged tobear this declaration to Paris. If any attempt is made upon the lives of the king and his family or upon his liberty, he will defend himself to the last."Drawn up at Rambouillet, I August 1830."(Signed)CHARLES"
"The king, desirous of putting a stop to the troubles that exist in the capital and in another part of France,relying especially on the sincere attachment of his cousin the Duc d'Orléans, appoints him Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom. The king, having seen fit to withdraw the Ordinances of 25 July, approves the assembling of the Chambers on 3 August, and he hopes they will be able to re-establish tranquillity in France. The king will await at Rambouillet the return of the person charged tobear this declaration to Paris. If any attempt is made upon the lives of the king and his family or upon his liberty, he will defend himself to the last.
"Drawn up at Rambouillet, I August 1830.
"(Signed)CHARLES"
The courier left Rambouillet at six in the morning, and reached Paris at half-past eight. The Duc d'Orléans received the despatch at a quarter to nine. M. Dupin was already with him. It is well known how early M. Dupin could be the day, or day but one, after revolutions had taken place; moreover, thanks to theCaricature, the impressions of the shoes of this famous lawyer, printed along the route to Neuilly, both going and returning, andvice versâ, acquired a celebrity that afterwards became proverbial. M. Dupin, then, was with the Duc d'Orléans when he received the letter from Charles X. The Duc d'Orléans read it and passed it on to him. M. Dupin, remember, was head of the prince's Privy Council. M. Dupin read the proclamation in his turn, and advised that they should break openly and even brutally with the Older Branch.
"Diable!" said the prince, "such a letter as you suggest my writing will be anything but easy to draw up!"
"Shall I draw it up, your Highness?" asked M. Dupin.
"Yes, certainly. Try ... we will see."
M. Dupin wrote a letter as rough as himself. The Duc d'Orléans read it, approved, re-copied, signed, put it in an envelope and was going to seal it when, all at once, he said—
"Good gracious! I was going to send off a letter of such importance as this without showing it to the duchess.... Wait a moment, Monsieur Dupin, I will soon come back."
The letter must have been brutal indeed, for M. Dupin has himself confessed that it was; he was by nature rough and the plane of education had not effaced this roughness. He continued to argue with King Louis-Philippe in just the same fashion as he had done when he was Prince of Orléans. Once, during a political discussion, he forgot himself so far as to say to the king—
"Look here, sir, we shall never agree!"
"I was thinking the same thing, Monsieur Dupin," replied Louis-Philippe, "only I dared not tell you so."
I know few sayings more insolently aristocratic than this. King Louis-Philippe was diabolically witty. In proof whereof, he returned holding the same envelope and a letter that was to all appearances the same.
"Poor duchess!" he said, "it made her very sad; but, by Jove, it can't be helped!"
Then he slipped the letter into the envelope, held the wax to a candle, sealed the despatch with his seal and gave it to a messenger. But the letter he sent to Charles X. was not by any means the one M. Dupin had drawn up: it was one of his own composing, in which he renewed his assurances of devotion and respect towards the old king. This little game of sleight-of-hand was hardly finished before the outcries of the people gathered in the courtyard of the Palais-Royal summoned him out on the balcony. Louis-Philippe was obliged to show himself on this balcony twenty times a day for a week. Very soon this was not enough to satisfy the crowd, for the moment he appeared, the crowd struck up theMarseillaise; then, he himself must needs join in too, in a voice which, as I have remarked, was as out of tune as that of King Louis XV. Soon, this did not suffice them; when the lieutenant-general had shown himself and joined in singing theMarseillaise, he had to go down into the courtyard and shake hands with the rag-and-bone men and porters and pat them on the back. I have seen him go down two or three times in an hour and return with his wig awry, mopping his forehead, washing his hands and cursing vigorously the part he was compelled to play.
Ah! monseigneur, did you not know that in order to become king, after being prince, you would have frequently to mop your forehead and wash your hands?
The Duc de Chartres next arrived at the head of his regiment, and entered the Palais-Royal just as his father was courting popularity in the manner above described. I shall never forget the way he straightened himself in his saddle,and the look he cast on the scene. The arrival of her eldest son was a great delight to the poor duchess; he was the only one of her children that had been missing. She was well aware of the danger he had incurred and he was all the dearer to her on that account. As he entered his father's apartments I was leaving them, and I was only to return there once more at the summons of the king himself. This spectacle of a prince begging for a crown stirred me to the heart. The young duke held out his hand to me: I took it and pressed it with tears in my eyes. It was to be four years before I touched that loyal, open hand again, though, at that moment, I thought I should be parted from him for ever, and was therefore touching it for the last time. In due course I will relate the circumstances under which I was again to meet him.
As I left the Palais-Royal I came across a placard which openly asserted that the Orléans princes were notBourbons, but of the house ofValois. I could hardly believe my eyes and stood for a quarter of an hour reading and re-reading it. Ten yards away I met Oudard, took him by the arm and led him in front of the placard.
"Oh!" I said, "it seems it was not enough for Philippe-Égalité to disown his father, but that the son must disown even his very race?"
I returned home, I must confess, completely cast down. I do not know which day this was, but I think it must have been the 2nd of August.
The powder had arrived with Bard that morning; I had handed it over to two students of the École polytechnique, who gave me a receipt for it and took it to la Salpétrière. It must have been on the 2nd, for I saw M. de Latour-Foissac, whom I knew by sight, driving to the Palais-Royal; I had met him at the house of Madame de Sériane, sister of General Coëtlosquet.
M. de Latour-Foissac was taking the answer to the lieu-tenant-general's letter of the previous day, the letter substituted, as we know, for the one written by M. Dupin. This answer was the abdication of Charles X. and that of the Ducd'Angoulême; it gave permission to the Duc d'Orléans to proclaim the Duc de Bordeaux under the title of Henri V. The lieutenant-general declined to receive the messenger, but he took the message.
Now, what was to be done? M. Sébastiani was consulted, and advised a Regency. Béranger was for a Monarchy. The Duc d'Orléans cut the difficult knot by saying—
"Be Regent? I would rather be nothing at all than Regent.... At the very first stomach-ache Henri V. might have, it would be proclaimed upon the housetops that I had poisoned him."
And from that moment there was no longer any doubt in anyone's mind that Louis-Philippe would become king.
The abdication was dated from Rambouillet, as the letter had been. Rambouillet was only thirty-six miles from Paris; Charles X. had still fourteen thousand men round him, with thirty-eight pieces of cannon. He had something even better than those—he had the two letters of the Duc d'Orléans. Charles X. could not remain at Rambouillet; by some combination or other he must be forced to leave Rambouillet, and, more than that, France itself. It did not prove a difficult matter to manage to bring this to pass—the means were probably already prepared. Meantime, on 2 August, General Hulot was sent to Cherbourg to take up the command of the four departments which separate Paris from the Channel; the same day also M. Dumont-d'Urville received orders to start for Havre with all haste, and there to freight two transport ships. The day before, they risked inserting in theCourrier françaisthe protest of the Duc d'Orléans against the birth of the Duc de Bordeaux. The reader knows how this proclamation, which in 1820 had caused the exile of the Duc d'Orléans, suggested a doubt as to the legitimacy of the young prince. Well, on 1 August theCourrier françaiswas asked to give it a place in one of its next issues. It did not keep the future king waiting long in impatience! Next morning, 2 August, theCourriercontained the protest. Very likely it was set upby the very same compositors who had printed the placard stating that the Orléans princes were Valois by descent, and not Bourbons.
So all these things happened on 2 August, for on the 3rd I was awakened by the call to arms, which was being beaten furiously in the street, and by Delanoue, who burst into my room, a double-barrelled gun in his hand. A gun was such an unusual toilet accessory in the case of Delanoue that I was more struck by it than by all the rest of the commotion.
"What the dickens is happening?" I asked him.
"Charles X. is marching on Paris with twenty thousand men and fifty pieces of cannon, my dear boy, and all Paris on its part has risen to march against him. Will you come too?"
"By Jove! of course I will!" I cried, leaping out of bed. "I should rather think I would!"
I called Joseph, whose terrified face I had not seen behind Delanoue.
"Here I am, monsieur!" he said, "here I am!"
"Give me my shooting clothes, and take my rifle to the nearest gun-maker's to be cleaned."
"Don't let him take your gun to a shop," said Delanoue; "they will take it from him on the way."
"What!" I said, "they would seize it?"
"Without a doubt.... Things are worse than during the Three Days!"
"Then, my dear Joseph, clean it yourself!"
"Good heavens! good heavens!" said Joseph, "is monsieur going to return to Soissons?"
"No, Joseph; I am going, on the contrary, in exactly the opposite direction."
"Thank goodness!"
Harel came in whilst I was dressing.
"Good—morning, Harel.... What is the news, my friend?"
"The news is," said Harel, drawing his snuff-box from hispocket and plunging in his finger and thumb up to the first joint, "the news is that I have a cunning idea in my head." He breathed up his pinch of snuff with sensuous enjoyment, and, as is usual with great connoisseurs, scattered three-quarters of his snuff over the floor and into the air. "An excellent idea!" he went on.
"Well, my friend, you shall communicate it to me on my return."
"Where are you going?"
"To Rambouillet, of course!"
"Excellent! That's the finishing stroke! You ran the risk of being shot three days ago at Soissons, and now you want to go and get some limb or other broken at Rambouillet!"
"But don't you realise that Charles X. is marching on Paris with twenty thousand men and fifty pieces of cannon?"
"I know that is the report; but let fools believe such news as that. Poor Charles X.! I will wager, if he marches to any town whatsoever, it will be towards Havre or Cherbourg."
"Never mind, my dear friend! Delanoue has come to fetch me, and if it is nothing more than to hunt big game in the park at Rambouillet, I do not wish to miss the opportunity... So once more you must put off telling me your piece of news till my return, if I do return."
"Give me a part in your piece," Delanoue said in a whisper.
"Certainly, I promise."
I turned round to Harel.
"How did you come here?" I asked him.
"Why, in a cab, of course."
"Good! we will take it."
"What for?"
"To drive to Rambouillet."
"You must take me as far as the Odéon, then!"
"Agreed!"
"Besides," said Delanoue, "it is on the place de l'Odéon people are collecting."
"Ah! you will lend us your tricolour flag, Harel, won't you?"
"What tricolour flag do you mean?"
"The one under which they have been singing theMarseillaiseat your theatre for the last three days."
"What am I to do, then?"
"You will make an announcement to the public, telling them that I carried it away to Rambouillet.... The public is good-natured enough, and will do without the flag for a day or two."
"Come along and get it ... you know very well the whole theatre is at your service."
Whenever Harel wanted to get a play out of me, he always made this remark. My gun had been washed and rubbed and dried in the sun; I took it, we got into the cab and set off for the Odéon. There were two or three thousand persons in the square and its vicinity. I had scarcely put my foot to the ground, leaving Delanoue inside the cab, before I was surrounded by a score of men, calling me by my name and asking me to put myself at their head. They were the scene-shifters belonging to the Odéon, who still had in warm remembrance the tips I had given them whenChristinewas being performed. I told one of them to go and find the flag, and whilst we left the cab under the protection of others (to whom I sent out seven or eight bottles of wine to keep up their patience) we went and had breakfast at Risbeck's. By the time we came out of the restaurant our troop was further augmented by a drummer. I have remarked before with what rapidity drummers multiply during times of revolution. We got into our cab, naturally taking the seat of honour; then everybody else crushed inside with us, or outside on the box with the driver, some behind, some on the shafts, and some on the imperial. The unlucky horses started, dragging nineteen people! Most of my men were only armed with pikes. At the corner of the rue du Bac and the quay, a man who seemed to be posted there on duty for this purpose shouted after us—
"Have you any arms?"
"No!" replied most of my men.
"Well! arms are being distributed at the Palais-Royal."
"To the Palais-Royal!" cried the men. "To the Palais-Royal."
The cab crossed the place du Carrousel and made its way towards the Palais-Royal. Traffic was becoming possible once more, little by little the barricades had disappeared and the paving stones had somehow or other been laid down again. We reached the Palais-Royal.
"One moment," I said; "order, if you please! I am known here, and, if there is any chance of obtaining anything, I shall have it."
We went into a low room, which was packed with people. As I went in, I knocked against a student of the École who was going out.
"Is that you, Charles?"
"Yes.... Have you come to get arms?"
"Of course."
"In that case, you had better hurry up. I have only been able to get a pistol."
He had a pistol stuck into his coat, the butt end projecting between two buttons.
"You are going there too?"
"Why, of course!"
"Then we shall meet again?"
"Probably."
"Good-day!"
"Adieu!"
We managed with the greatest difficulty to push our way to the distributor of arms. Fortunately, a valet in the livery of the Duc d'Orléans recognised me, and made room for us.
"Monsieur de Rumigny," he said, "here is M. Dumas."
"Very well, let him come to me."
The distributor was M. de Rumigny himself: he was then about thirty-five, and was a splendid figure in his uniform. He had a big case full of swords and pistols in front of him; the rifles had all gone. They had come from Lepage.
Swords and pistols were given to my men, and then, when all had been equipped, M. de Rumigny asked—
"Are your men thirsty?"
"Rather," I said, "they are scene-shifters from the théâtre de l'Odéon!"
"Give them a glass of wine each, then."
They went to a table full of bottles and glasses, and were served by His Royal Highness's own lackeys.
"Well?" I asked, when they had drunk.
"The livery is fine enough," they replied, "but the wine is poor."
"What do you mean?"
"It is not equal to that you sent us out on the place de l'Odéon.... We bet this wine here is not worth twelve sous a bottle."
"If you have any more like it again to-night, upon my word I shall think you very lucky."
"Messieurs," said a lackey, "please make room now for others."
"Quite right": so we went out.
Paris presented quite a new aspect—it seemed incredible after the many different spectacles it had been exhibiting. Whether the cabs were chartered by the Government, or whether their drivers shared the general enthusiasm, they placed themselves at the disposal of the combatants. At the corner of the rue Saint-Roch I caught sight of Charles Ledru running at full speed. I called out to him—
"Hi! come with us."
"Have you room for me?"
"We are only nine inside, and if we squeeze up a little more we can get you in."
"Thanks, I have a horse ready for me at Kausmann's."
"Stop," I said, "that reminds me I have one too.... I always forget it." I had only had it a short time.
I pulled up before my friend Hiraux's café, porte Saint-Honoré, and he regaled all my men with apetit verreof eau-de-vie. The bottle was emptied in the process. But, as the flag waved, my men sang theMarseillaiseand the drum beat a roll. We had taken nearly three-quarters of an hour incoming from the Palais-Royal to the porte Saint-Honoré, the street was so crowded and the carriages walked in files as at Longchamp.
We now made a fresh start, some taking the road by the water and others the grand avenue of the Champs-Élysées. At the place Louis XV. "Make way!" was being shouted by General Pajol, who had just received the command of the Expeditionary Army, and who came along full gallop to take the head of the column. He had with him Charras, Charles Ledru and two or three others. We drew up, and he passed and went along by the water's edge. We kept to the grand allée. At the circus of the Champs-Élysées we turned to the left, to regain the quai de Billy by the avenue Montaigne. In the middle of this avenue stood a group of horsemen with Colonel Jacqueminot in the centre. He was in the dress of a deputy and still wore the silver fleur-de-lis on his collar. General Pajol had doubtless been sending to look for him, for he was talking eagerly with Charras. Étienne Arago passed at that moment with a band of about a hundred men. Every time we met they shouted "Vive la Charte!" and we shouted back the same! This seemed to annoy Colonel Jacqueminot, and with good cause, I think: it was not amusing at all to live in the din of those everlasting shoutings.
"Yes! yes! shoutVive la Charte!It will make you as fat as eating bits of wafer!"
The phrase was so original that I have not forgotten a word of it in all these twenty-two years. We only shouted the louder, then went on our way in the direction of Versailles.
Mission of four commissioners to Charles X.—General Pajol—He is appointed commander of the Paris Volunteers—Charras offers to be his aide-de-camp—The map of Seine-et-Oise—The spies—The hirer of carriages—Rations of bread—D'Arpentigny—The taking of the artillery of Saint-Cyr—Halt at Cognières—M. Detours
Mission of four commissioners to Charles X.—General Pajol—He is appointed commander of the Paris Volunteers—Charras offers to be his aide-de-camp—The map of Seine-et-Oise—The spies—The hirer of carriages—Rations of bread—D'Arpentigny—The taking of the artillery of Saint-Cyr—Halt at Cognières—M. Detours
May I now be permitted to lose my own poor little individuality in the vortex of the general movement that was urging thirty to forty thousand human beings with one common impulse towards Rambouillet.
Ever since the previous day, when, as we have stated, the lieutenant-general had received official information of the abdication of Charles X., he had tried to think of the best means of ridding himself as quickly as possible of that inconvenient neighbour. Now this is what he did. He decided that, in order to protect Charles X. from the outburst of public anger that would break out next day, he would send him four commissioners. These four were: Marshall Maison, Colonel Jacqueminot, M. de Schonen, whom they desired to win over, and Odilon Barrot, who needed no persuading, as he had been one of the most powerful upholders of the new power that had just arisen. There was a certain amount of interest attaching to Marshall Maison, because it was he who had been to Calais to meet Louis XVIII., and now he was getting ready to escort Charles X. back to Cherbourg. Moreover, by presenting themselves at Rambouillet, the four commissioners believed they were being summoned there by Charles X. They set off on 2 August at four o'clock in the afternoon; by nine o'clock they had reached the outposts. They passed through the Royal Army by the light of bivouacfires, and reached Rambouillet, but not without, however, catching sight of some eager glances and half-drawn swords. Luckily, the Duc d'Orléans conceived the idea of adding to their number M. de Coigny, whose name was connected with the ancient monarchy by traditions of glory, by the devotion of his father and his ancestors. The name of M. de Coigny protected them and procured their admission to the palace. Charles X. did not understand their presence at such an unusual hour and, to their request for an audience, sent word that the time for audiences was past, but that he offered them hospitality at the château de Rambouillet. Charles X. was, however, waiting for the answer of the Duc d'Orléans to the letter he had sent him that morning by M. de Latour-Foissac which the duke had taken from the hands of M. de Mortemart, although he would not consent to receive the messenger who had brought it. The hospitality of the château de Rambouillet! that was not what the four commissioners had come for; so they at once got back into their carriage and immediately returned to Paris. They returned more quickly than they had come, and re-entered the Palais-Royal at half-past twelve midnight. The future king was not as punctilious as the retiring one: he would receive at any hour, especially when the news was worth his while. The news the four commissioners brought compelled him to take a resolution there and then, without loss of time: Charles X. must be compelled to leave Rambouillet the very next day. To this end a great patriotic demonstration was essential, and Colonel Jacqueminot was commissioned to stir up such a demonstration. At daybreak, two or three hundred policemen were let loose in every quarter of Paris with orders to cry out—
"Charles X. is marching upon Paris!... To Rambouillet! To Rambouillet!"
They were also deputed to send forth all the drummers they knew of and to let these beat therappel.And this was the cause of the infernal racket that had waked Paris.
The Government possessed one man at this crisis on whose courage they could rely: this was General Pajol. He was thetrue type of a soldier; courageous, honourable, open and loyal, quick in making decisions, persistent in determination. At some battle or other, when he was either colonel or major of a regiment, just in sight of the emperor, a shell pierced his horse's stomach and burst inside it. Pajol was sent flying fifteen feet into the air. Napoleon saw the strange ascension.
"By Jove!" he said, "if that beggar comes down, he must have a tough life!"
A fortnight afterwards, a superior officer came and presented himself before the emperor, limping slightly.
"Who are you?" asked Napoleon.
"I am the tough-lived beggar," replied Pajol.
And to this incident was due his rapid advance in an admirable military career, only interrupted by Waterloo.
Pajol belonged to the Opposition and was almost Republican in his views.
Three days before this, when the Chamber was laying the preliminary foundations of a new monarchy, Pajol, who saw the turn things were taking, was walking sadly along the rue de Chabrol, in company with Degousée, who himself deplored the direction in which the Revolution was turning, when, suddenly, Pajol stopped.
"You told me, a minute ago, that you led a company of devoted men in the attack on the Louvre?" he asked.
"No doubt of it."
"Well, could you still rely on those men?"
"I believe so."
"To the pitch of executing to the letter, and without any discussion, any order you might give them?"
"What sort of order?"
"Suppose it were to arrest the deputies?"
"Oh! I would not answer for them in that respect!"
"In that case, the Revolution has miscarried!..."
He went to his home, in the rue de la Ferme des Mathurins, to await the turn of events.
Events soon happened: they made him commander of the insurrection on the 3rd and they counted upon him to lead thedemocratic army, which he did. It was all one to him, so long as he was serving France. Charras had heard it cried in the streets that General Pajol was to be commander-in-chief of the expedition and he rushed off to the general's house. Let us begin by saying that he had been beforehand to the stables of Kausmann and had taken his best horse, over which he had had a dispute with a man who was a great judge of horses and had chosen it himself. The horse-fancier was Charles Ledru, who had left me in the rue Saint-Honoré, refusing the seat I offered him in my cab, to go and bestride the horse waiting for him at Kausmann's. Just as he entered the stables, Charras was leaving them at full gallop on the very horse he, Charles Ledru, had selected. He chose another, however, and rode after the first. Luckily, he found the second a good one, and accordingly, when he overtook Charras, he merely shook him by the hand. Charras, without any previous introduction, presented himself to General Pajol. That general, accustomed to taking all sorts of precautions during military expeditions, was having two enormous saddlebags taken down: one was full of hams, legs of mutton and fowls, and the other was filled with bread. At the fourth word Charras addressed to him, and at the first look he cast at him he said—
"Look here, I like you!"
"So much the better," said Charras.
"You appear to be a nice young dog!"
"Dogs are not allowed to take a share in things."
"Will you be my aide-de-camp?"
"Yes, indeed; that was what I came for!"
"Then it is settled"; and he held out his hand to the young man.
"Now," he replied, "will you have a bit of food?"
"I shall be delighted!... I am dying of hunger."
"Go into the dining-room, then.... Madame Pajol! Madame Pajol!"
The general's wife entered.
"Give this young fellow a good breakfast ... he has cometo offer me his services as aide-de-camp; he little knows what work I shall cut out for him."
Charras sat down at the table, devoured his food by huge mouthfuls, drank like a fish and was ready to start in ten minutes' time.
"Come along now,en route!" said the general.
They went down into the courtyard, where three or four persons were waiting for them, leapt into their saddles and the general set off at a gallop, turning short round the corner of the stable-yard gate and making his horse change feet, like the perfect horseman he was. Charras was an excellent horseman himself and stood this first test victoriously. But the horse that was being ridden by another student of the École was pushed on to the footpath and fell down on the left hand. This happened outside a chemist's shop and both student and horse disappeared into the shop—breaking in the front as they fell. The accident was not thought worth wasting time over and the others went on their way without even turning their heads to look. When they reached the barrier at Passy, the general took command of the column. Our cab was one of the first, after the general's staff, which consisted of Jacqueminot, Charras, Charles Ledru, d'Higonnet, M. de Lagrange, Vernon and Bernadou. Vernon and Bernadou wore the uniform of students at the École. Charles Ledru was in the old uniform of the National Horse Guards, and wore a helmet; Higonnet wore the uniform of a pupil of the School of Cavalry at Saumur; and M. de Lagrange that of the Light Cavalry. General Exelmans appeared farther on, beyond the quai de Billy.
"Here I am, Pajol!" he said, breaking through the ranks to get to him.
"You are somewhat late ... but never mind," Pajol replied; "you can command the rearguard."
"Good!" was Exelmans' reply.
And he passed along to the rearguard, where he found the Rouennais, who had but just arrived.
Pajol pulled up his horse at Point-du-Jour.
"By Jove!" he exclaimed, "I bet...."
"What?" they inquired.
"That nobody here has a map of the department of Seine-et-Oise... Eh? Has anyone got a map of the department of Seine-et-Oise?"
Nobody replied.
"Shall I go and find one?" asked Charras.
"Where?"
"I don't know! Wherever I can!"
"But if you don't know where to look?"