citizen bonaparte
barras closed the door and stepped within the circle of light cast by the lamp. then only did the young man recognize him.
"ah! is it you, citizen barras?" he asked without rising.
barras shook himself, for he was drenched, and tossed his dripping hat upon a chair. the young man continued to watch him attentively.
"yes, it is i, citizen bonaparte," said he.
"what wind has blown you to the poor soldier's cell at this hour. a mistral or a sirocco?"
"mistral, my dear bonaparte; a mistral of the most violent kind."
the young man gave a dry, harsh laugh, which showed his small, sharp, white teeth.
"i know something about it," he said. "i took a walk through paris this evening."
"and what is your opinion?"
"it is that, as the section le peletier intimated to the convention, the storm will burst to-morrow."
"and what were you doing in the meantime?"
the young man rose, and pointing with his index finger to the map on the table, he said: "as you see, i was amusing myself by planning what i would do if i, instead of that imbecile menou, were general of the interior, in order to put an end to all these talkers."
[pg 311]
"and what would you do?"
"i would try to secure a dozen cannon which would talk louder than they."
"did you not tell me one day at toulon that you had witnessed the rising of the 20th of june from the terrace beside the ornamental waters?"
the young man shrugged his shoulders contemptuously.
"yes," he said, "i saw your poor king louis xvi. put on the red cap, which did not prevent his head from falling, and which only disgraced it. and i even said to bourrienne, who was with me that day, 'how could they admit that rabble to the chateau? they should have swept four or five hundred out with cannon, the rest would have run out of themselves.'"
"unfortunately," resumed barras, "to-day there are five thousand instead of five hundred to be swept out."
the young man smiled carelessly.
"a difference of number, that is all," he replied; "but what ultimate difference, so long as the result is the same? the rest is a mere matter of detail."
"so much so that you were defeating the insurgents when i came in?"
"i was making the endeavor."
"and you had your plan laid out?"
"yes."
"what is it?"
"that depends. how many soldiers can you call upon?"
"five or six thousand, including the holy battalion of patriots."
"with that number it is useless to think of attacking forty-five or fifty thousand in the streets. i tell you that plainly."
"would you evacuate paris?"
"no, but i would convert the convention into an intrenched camp. i would await the attack of the sections, and i would annihilate them in the rue saint-honoré, the place du palais-royal, and along the quays and the bridges."
[pg 312]
"well," said barras, "i will adopt your plan. will you attend to the execution of it?"
"i?"
"yes, you."
"in what capacity?"
"as second general of the interior."
"and who is to be general-in-chief?"
"general-in-chief?"
"yes."
"citizen barras."
"then i accept," said the young man, holding out his hand, "but on one condition."
"what, you are making conditions?"
"why not?"
"go on."
"if we succeed, and order is restored by to-morrow evening, i can count upon you if war is declared with austria, can i not?"
"if we succeed to-morrow, in the first place you shall have all the glory, and i shall ask the chief command of the armies of the rhine and the moselle for you."
bonaparte shook his head. "i will go neither to holland nor to germany," he said.
"why not?"
"because there is nothing to be done there."
"where do you wish to go?"
"to italy. it is only in italy, on the battlefields of hannibal, marius and c?sar that there is anything to be done."
"if there is war in italy you shall be placed in charge of it, i give you my word of that."
"thank you. and now let us think of to-morrow. there is no time to lose."
barras drew out his watch and looked at it.
"i should think not," he said; "it is already three o'clock in the morning."
"how many cannon have you at the tuileries?"
"six four-pounders, but no gunners."
[pg 313]
"they can be found. bronze is scarcer than flesh. how many rounds can be fired?"
"oh! eighty thousand at the outside."
"eighty thousand—just enough to kill eighty men, supposing that one shot out of a thousand does execution. luckily we still have three hours of darkness left to us. we must have all the guns brought from the camp at sablons, so that, in the first place, the enemy cannot seize them, and then because we need them ourselves. we must take enough men from the gendarmerie and from the battalion of '89 to man the guns, and we must send for at least a million cartridges from meudon and marly. finally we must find officers upon whom we can depend."
"we have all those who were deposed by aubry and who have enlisted in the holy battalion."
"splendid! they are men of action rather than intelligence, and that is what we need." and the young officer rose, buckled on his sword, buttoned his coat, and blew out his light, murmuring, "oh! fortune, fortune! do i at last hold you within my grasp?"
the two men went out and directed their steps toward the convention. barras noticed that the young man did not lock his door, which showed that he had nothing of value to lose.
five hours later—that is to say, at eight in the morning—this is what the two officers had accomplished.
they reached the camp at sablons in time to bring the artillery to paris. they established a manufactory of cartridges at meudon. they planted guns at every avenue, and masked batteries were erected in the event of any of the outlets being carried. a battery, consisting of two eight-pounders and two howitzers, was erected on the place du carrousel to cover the columns and to fire on the windows of the houses from which weapons could be brought to bear upon the place. general verdier commanded at the palais national. means of subsistence for the convention and its soldiers were thus assured for four or five[pg 314] days in case of blockade. guns and troops were stationed in and around the building occupied by the convention—in the cul-de-sac of the dauphin, in the rues de rohan and saint-nicaise, at the palais-égalité, at the pont de la révolution, and the place vend?me. a small body of cavalry and two thousand infantry were kept in reserve at the carrousel and in the garden of the tuileries.
thus this great convention of france, which had overturned a monarchy that had endured for centuries; which had made every throne in europe tremble; which had driven the english from holland, and the austrians and the prussians from champagne and alsace; which had driven the spanish troops one hundred and eighty miles beyond the pyrenees, and destroyed the two vendées—this great convention of france, which had just united belgium, nice, savoy, and luxemburg to france, whose armies, passing like a whirlwind through europe, had leaped the rhine as though it had been a brook, and threatened to pursue the eagle of hapsburg to vienna; this national convention possessed nothing in paris but the banks of the seine, from the rue dauphine to the rue du bac, and only those parts of the city on the other side of the river which were included between the place de la révolution and the place des victoires; and to defend itself against all paris it had only five thousand men and a general who was almost unknown.
