the victory
the struggle on this side was indeed terrible! scarcely had morgan, who was boiling with impatience, heard danican's voice, still a long distance behind, crying "forward!" than he fell like an avalanche upon cartaux's men. the movement was so rapid that the latter had not even time to present arms and fire. they aimed at random, and then received morgan and his men at the point of their bayonets.
the battery under the balcony of charles ix. narrowly escaped capture, so unexpected was the attack. the sectionists were not more than ten feet away from the guns when the gunners instinctively lowered their matches and fired.
it would be impossible to describe the horrible and bloody gap which these three guns, fired thus simultaneously, made in the closely packed ranks before them; it was like a breach in a wall. the advance of the sectionists was so rapid, however, that even this breach did not check them. but at that moment bullets rained like hail upon the ranks of the sectionists from the colonnade of the louvre, which was covered with sharpshooters.
meantime a hand-to-hand battle was being waged in the open space before the louvre. the sectionists were in fact[pg 334] caught between two fires. all the houses in the rue des poulies, the rue des fosses-saint-germain-l'auxerrois, and the rue des pretres overlooking the garden of the infanta, vomited forth fire and death.
morgan had promised himself to take cartaux prisoner. he contrived to reach him, but cartaux sought shelter behind the bayonets of his men. for a moment it was a duel to the death all along the line. the sectionists, repulsed by the bayonets, drew back a step, reloaded their guns, fired pointblank, and then, reversing their weapons, used them as clubs, and tried to fight their way out of the circle of fire which surrounded them. but nothing could break it.
suddenly morgan felt something give way behind him. the artillery, which had continued its deadly work, had cut his column in two, and it was obliged to incline to the right to maintain its position near the louvre.
there was now a large open space between the rue de la monnaie and the pont-neuf; the sectionists, not daring to risk themselves upon the quai du louvre, had sought shelter behind the houses in the rue de la monnaie and the parapet of the pont-neuf. morgan was therefore obliged to retreat; but just as he reached the upper part of the pont-neuf, coster de saint-victor came rapidly down the rue guénégaud. the two young men recognized each other, uttered a cry of joy, and carrying their men with them by the mere force of example, returned with redoubled fury to that quai du louvre which they had been forced to abandon shortly before.
here the same butchery recommenced. bonaparte had taken his measures with admirable precaution, and the louvre was impregnable. artillery, muskets and shells rained death from every side. folly alone could have continued such a struggle.
on the other hand, cartaux, who saw the wavering of the sectionists, who were in reality sustained by the courage of two men alone, ordered his men to fire for a last time, and then, forming in column, to advance at double-quick.
[pg 335]
the sectionists were annihilated. more than half of them were lying on the pavement. in the last rank, morgan, with only a fragment of his sword left in his hand, and coster de saint-victor, who had bound up a flesh wound in the thigh with his handkerchief, had recoiled like two lions forced to retreat before their hunters.
by half-past six everything was over, every column broken and dispersed. two hours had sufficed to accomplish this tremendous defeat. of the fifty thousand sectionists who had taken part in the fight, scarcely a thousand were left, and they were scattered broadcast—some in the church of saint-roch, some in the palais-égalité, others behind the barricade in the rue de la loi, and others at the windows of the houses. as night was coming on, and bonaparte wished to save the innocent from suffering with the guilty, he ordered his men to pursue the sectionists as far as the pont du change and the boulevards, but with guns loaded with powder only. their terror was so great that the noise alone would be sufficient to make them flee.
at seven in the evening barras and bonaparte entered the hall of the convention together in the midst of the deputies, who laid down their weapons to clasp their hands.
"conscript fathers," said barras, "your enemies are no longer! you are free and the country is saved!"
cries of "long live barras!" echoed on all sides. but he shook his head, and, commanding silence, continued: "the victory is not mine, citizen representatives. it is due to the prompt and skilful arrangements of my young colleague, bonaparte."
and as the shouts of gratitude continued, gathering in vehemence because their terror had been so great, a ray of the setting sun shone across the vaulted ceiling, framing the calm, bronze head of the young victor in an aureole of purple and gold.
"do you see?" said chénier to tallien, regarding the shaft of light as an omen. "if that were brutus!"
that same evening morgan, safe and sound by a miracle,[pg 336] passed the barrier without being stopped, and took the road to besan?on. coster de saint-victor, thinking that nowhere could he be better concealed than in the house of barras's mistress, sought shelter of the beautiful aurélie de saint-amour.
