The Sword of Honor; or, The Foundation of the French Republic

by Eugène Sue

  CHAPTER IV.

  LAYING THE TRAIN.

  Late that afternoon conspiracy held high carnival in the parlor ofLahary, an influential member of the Council of Ancients. Theconspirators present were scattered in groups about the apartment,engaged in lively conversation, when Hubert the banker and advocateDesmarais made their entrance upon the scene.

  "Messieurs," Lahary was saying, "there are a number of us present. Letus begin our deliberations. I shall preside. Our colleague Regnier hasthe floor."

  Regnier at once began: "Gentlemen, yesterday, in a long conference heldat the home of our friend the president of the Council of Ancients,various opinions were advanced and discussed, but we separated withouthaving reached any conclusion, setting to-day for the finaldeliberation. We should no longer temporize. Time presses; publicopinion, very uneasy, very restless, is watching; it apprehends a coupd'etat, they say, from moment to moment. This state of mind isparticularly favorable to our projects, only we must make speed toprofit by circumstances, and hasten events. Else the Council of FiveHundred will steal a march on us and appeal to an insurrection, in thename of the Constitution in danger. We should thus lose much of ourvantage ground."

  "Aye, let us haste," agreed Fouche. "Trust to my long experience. Inrevolutions, he who attacks has three chances to one."

  "The experience and authority of our friend Fouche in matters ofconspiracy can not be too highly estimated," Regnier hastened to put in."I am for attacking, and that to-morrow, the 18th Brumaire. Here is myproject. The Council of Five Hundred is the only real obstacle to theoverthrow of the Constitution, which, it is decided, shall give way toanother form of government, to be determined on later. The Council ofFive Hundred, composed in its immense majority of republicans, is, then,the stumbling block to our projects. It must be either suppressed orannihilated."

  "It is more than probable that the canaille of the suburbs will notbudge an inch. Nevertheless, let us proceed prudently, as if aninsurrection were really to be feared. Let us get all the police, horseand foot, upon the field to repress all suggestion of revolt," advisedFouche.

  "To conjure away the peril of an insurrection, this is what I wouldpropose," Regnier continued. "The Constitution of the year III vestsexclusively in us, the Council of Ancients, the right to appoint orchange the meeting-place of the Assemblies. Let us, in virtue of ourconstitutional right, transfer our seat and that of the Five Hundred toSt. Cloud, which we can invest with five or six thousand troops, ofwhich we will give the command to General Bonaparte. Things thusprepared, if the Council of Five Hundred refuses to adhere to our mostdrastic measures--a refusal who can doubt?--we shall pronounce thedissolution of their Council, and commission General Bonaparte to carryout the decree. Triumph is assured--"

  "I am authorized by my brother," spoke up a new party to the debate,Lucien Bonaparte, "to declare to you that if he is placed in supremecommand of the troops he will answer for everything, even to the burningof Paris."

  "Those are extreme measures, but we must not recoil before them. We mayhave to burn Paris," chimed in the plotters in chorus.

  "Yes, I share the opinion of my colleagues," declared Desmarais thelawyer. "The Council of Five Hundred, transferred to St. Cloud, becomesno longer an object of fear. But how can we justify that relegation inthe eyes of the public?"

  Fouche smiled sardonically. "Citizen Brutus Desmarais," said he, "youhave forgotten the fifty thousand Septembrists who are in the catacombs!My spies and my horse police will spread themselves all over Paristo-morrow trumpeting to the good bourgeois that a tremendous plot hasbeen unearthed to-night by Monsieur Fouche, Minister of Police. He,wishing to frustrate the abominable projects of the scoundrels ofTerrorists, who are in league with the Five Hundred, all Jacobins,warned the Council of Ancients of what was on foot; and the nobleconscript fathers, who would be the first to perish under the daggers ofthe bloodthirsty Terrorists, thereupon decided to remove the sessions ofthe national representation to St. Cloud."

  "Hurrah for the great complot!" shouted Lemercier, opening his mouth forthe first time. "And this reason can well be supported by another, byinsisting above all that the lives of the Council of Ancients aremenaced by their sitting any longer in Paris."

  "Yes, yes--on with the 'great conspiracy'!" cried all.

  "It is agreed, then," summed up Regnier, "that the discovery of thisplot--excellent invention of the police!--is to justify the removal toSt. Cloud. Now we must see that our project does not miss fire."

  "For that purpose we must call a special session of our colleagues ofthe Council of Ancients, without informing them of the reason therefor,"suggested Lemercier.

  "I would observe to my honorable colleague, that, to my mind, it wouldbe a very prudent move not to notify the republican minority which sitswith us in the Council. These fellows would ask the most indiscreetquestions, the most absurd, ridiculous questions. They wouldn't contentthemselves with the simple affirmation that there was a plot discovered;they would ask for proofs of the plot! And the details of its discovery!It would be most difficult to answer them!" put in Desmarais.

  "Desmarais is right," assented Cornet, another of the conspirators. "Mybelief is that all of us here present should charge ourselves to go thisevening to see our colleagues of the majority personally, let them knowthe reason for to-morrow morning's extraordinary session, and addressletters of notification to them alone. Treason all along the line--oursuccess depends upon it. Is my advice taken?"

  "If the republican minority complains about not being notified, we canblame the inspectors of the hall," ventured Lemercier.

  "It will be necessary, as a matter of precaution, to double the troopsabout the Council of Ancients," Lucien Bonaparte advised. "Everythingmust be foreseen. Squads of police agents should even be mixed withthem."

  "General Bonaparte, more than anyone else, will serve our ends,"answered Regnier. "We shall count on General Bonaparte; say to him thathe may count on us."

  "Ah, there, Lucien," said Fouche with his withered leer, "if yourbrother orders the troops to march, how will you, as president of theFire Hundred, whom you betray with such neatness and despatch, keepthose prattlers from screeching like jays when they are dissolved?"

  "I shall head off the storm, never fear," laughed Lucien.

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

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

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

  "I am going at once to my brother's, on Victory Street," answered theyoung man.

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

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

  "My other colleagues and I," Regnier went on, "shall partition among usthe task of visiting our friends at once, at their homes, and informingthem of the motive of to-morrow's special session."

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

  "It must be an absolute secret, and I particularly recommend this to ourfriends," assented Regnier.

  "And I," Fouche added, "I shall go teach their lesson to my spies andagents of police, all blackguards and off-scourings, willing to doanything, 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 illustriousbrother, that grand man clad in the dictatorship which he alone canwield, will decide the form of government it pleases him to bestow uponFrance. We shall behol
d once more the glorious days of the monarchy."

  "How! the dictatorship is to fall on Bonaparte!" cried CouncillorHerwin, in surprise.

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

  "What a stupid ass this Desmarais is!" said young Bonaparte to himself."Messieurs," he added aloud, "I give you my word of honor as a man, mybrother has no other ambition than to place his genius and his sword atthe service of the Council of Ancients. He is outspokenly republican,and has no thoughts of a dictatorship."

  Despite the reassuring effect of Lucien Bonaparte's words, his fellowconspirator Regnier thought it wisest also to jump into the breach. "Wewon't occupy ourselves, dear colleagues," he said, "with a prematurequestion. Let us first turn down the Constitution of the year III, andpronounce the dissolution of the Council of Five Hundred which sustainsit. That done, we shall take further counsel; but first let us triumphover 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.