Edmond Dantès — A Notable Fête, part 2
The lady smiled also, and offered an appropriate jest in reply to the gallantry of the distinguished author, as he moved on to join his friends.
"The Ministry provokes its fate!"
he said, in a low tone, as he approached.
"'Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.'
These men suffered seventy reform banquets all over France.
The seventy-first one they prohibit, and that, too, by the exhumation of an old despotic edict of 1790. This is exactly what we would have.
It was the first, not the last banquet they should have suppressed.
Barrot was right to-day, in the Chamber, when he said that had this manifestation been suffered the people would have become tranquil."
"Tranquil, indeed!"
cried Ledru Rollin.
"That's exactly what we have apprehended!
No--no--it is too late!
This Reform Banquet was, at first, but an insignificant thing.
In it we now recognize the commencement of a revolution.
The various announcements and postponements of this banquet have caused an agitation among the masses favorable to our wishes, and the threats and obstinacy of the Ministry have completed the work.
The hopes, fears, doubts and disappointments attending this affair have put the mind of all Paris in a ferment, and excited passions of which we may take immediate advantage."
"Aye!"
cried Louis Blanc, "we may now do what I have always wished and counseled--we, the Communists, may now take advantage of a movement, in the origin or inception of which we had no hand."
"True, most true!"
observed Marrast; "this is the work of the Dynastics--Thiers, Barrot and the rest--the commencement of a reform under the law which we design to make a revolution paramount to all law."
"They begin to fear already that they have gone too far, those discreet men!"
said Louis Blanc, smiling bitterly.
"Did you observe how they shuffled to-night at M. Barrot's, and finally resolved to abandon the banquet, but, as a sop to the people, pledged themselves to impeach the Ministry?"
"Ah!
ha!
ha!"
laughed Ledru Rollin; "just as if their abandonment of the banquet is to keep the people away from it to-morrow, any more than the Ministerial ordinances!
Why, not one man in ten thousand knows of the existence of these manifestoes!
But the faubourgs have been promised a holiday for a fortnight past, and they don't intend to be put off again."
"Whether the Dynastics designed or wished to be compromised in this affair," remarked Marrast, "they certainly are committed now, and it is too late for them to get out of the movement.
Indeed, I view it as nothing less than a union of all the oppositions against the Crown--aye, against the Crown, and for a republic!
We comprehend this--they don't. They have not, like us, waited seventeen years for a signal for revolution;--and now, before God, I believe the hour is at hand!
This is no accidental insurrection of the 5th and 6th of June, '32--no outbreak at a funeral--no riot of operatives--no unmeaning revolt, as in '39. It is a reform, with the first names in France as its advocates and supporters, which we will make a revolution if we can secure the National Guard."
"The National Guard is secured already," said Louis Blanc.
"Are they not of the people?
At least twenty thousand of the National Guard are Republicans.
Of the remaining forty thousand, nearly all are well disposed or neutral in feeling.
Have I studied the National Guard for twenty years in vain, and have all the measures of the Communists to secure them, when the crisis came on, proved utterly ineffectual?
On the National Guard we may rely.
The Municipal Guard are picked men, and well paid to support the Throne--they will fight even better than the Line.
With the Line and the National Guard the people must seek to fraternize from the beginning--with the other troops they have solely to fight--but, after all, general facts and principles only can be laid down.
Circumstances utterly beyond human control must direct and govern, and vary and determine results when the period of action arrives; and arrive it may at any hour of the day or night.
At this moment Paris sleeps on a volcano, the fires of which have long been gathering through many a fair and sunny day!
God only knows when the volcano will burst;
but, when the hour comes, let the people be prepared!"
As these enthusiastic words were uttered, the dark eye of the speaker flashed and his lip quivered.
The silver clock on the mantel, beside which the conspirators stood, struck the first quarter after two.
The night was waning, but the festivity seemed rather to increase than diminish within the salons of the magnificent mansion, while the storm howled even more drearily without, and the rain, at intervals, in heavy blasts, beat even more fiercely against the northern casements.
As Louis Blanc ceased speaking, M. Flocon entered the salon, and, as if by some preconcerted arrangement, at once sought his political friends.
"What of the night, watchman?"
cried Ledru Rollin, as the editor of "La Reforme" approached.
"The latest news!
for 'That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker,' as the English Shakespeare says.
The news!
good or bad!"
"As I entered," said Flocon, "the house trembled with the jar of a train of heavy ordnance, attended by tumbrels and artillery caissons, and escorted by a regiment of horse, which rolled along the pavement of the Champs Elysees."
"Good!"
answered Marrast, with enthusiasm.
"All night," continued Flocon, eagerly, "through darkness and storm, whole regiments of infantry have thronged the line of boulevards which stretch from the Tuileries to Vincennes, and each soldier bears upon his knapsack, in addition to all his arms, an axe to demolish barricades.
The garrisons of the arrondissements of Paris are already seventy thousand strong; and the troops of the Line are concentrating around the Palais Bourbon and the Chamber of Deputies."
"Excellent--most excellent!"
joyfully exclaimed Louis Blanc.
"The affront will not be wanting!
But where is M. Dantes?"
"He is still with the chiefs of the faubourgs and the committees of the Free-masons and workmen, in the Rue Lepelletier, issuing his last instructions for the morrow.
Messieurs, that man is a magician!
His zeal in the good cause puts the boldest of us all to the blush.
By most indefatigable energy and indomitable perseverance, he has brought about a systematic, almost scientific organization and fraternity, through various modes of rapid intercommunication between the innumerable classes of operatives of every description throughout the whole capital and its faubourgs, so that, within six hours, he can have in military array an armed mass of one hundred thousand blouses upon the boulevards.
The workshops alone, he tells me, can furnish fifty thousand.
The rapidity with which he conveys intelligence through this immense army and their utter subservience to his will and subordination to his orders are all so wonderful that it is impossible to determine which is most so.
To control a Parisian populace has hitherto been deemed a chimera.
With M. Dantes it is an existing reality.
Not an army in Europe is so obedient or so prompt as his army of workmen.
The secret is this--they know him to be their friend.
All over Paris are to be seen his workshops, savings banks, hospitals and houses of industry and reform, and, in the suburbs, his phalansteries and his model farms.
That he has the command of boundless wealth is certain; but whose it is, or whence it comes, no one can divine; and never did man make use of boundless wealth to attain his ends more wisely than he does!
Why, I am told that the pens of half the litterateurs and feuilletonists of Paris have for years past been guided by his will and compensated from his purse to accomplish his purposes.
'The Mysteries of Paris' and 'The Wandering Jew' are but two of the triumphs of his policy.
And his system of philanthropy seems not bounded by France, but to embrace all Europe.
The Swiss Protestant and the Italian patriot have each felt his effective sympathy as well as the French workman; and in the same manner as with the operatives so has he obtained influence and weight with the National Guard, and to such an extent that of the sixty thousand one-half would obey his orders with greater alacrity than those of Jacqueminot himself.
I tell you, Messieurs, he is a magician!"
"Hush!
hush!"
cried Marrast; "he is entering now!"
"He pauses and looks around him!"
said Louis Blanc.
"He looks for us; I will go to him!"
remarked Flocon.
"He looks for his wife," replied Louis Blanc.
"There, he catches her eye.
See how eagerly she flies to him!"
"That is the finest pair in Paris," remarked the journalist.
"And the most devoted," added Ledru Rollin.
"They have been man and wife for some time, it is said, and any one would take them for lovers at this moment."
"Have they children?"
asked Flocon.
"No; but M. Dantes has by a former wife a son and daughter, who rival in good looks the celebrated children of our friend Victor Hugo," returned Louis Blanc.
"I met Arago, Lamartine, Sue, Chateaubriand and some other celebrities at his mansion in the Rue du Helder one night, recently," continued Marrast, "and I thought I never saw a house arranged with such perfect taste.
The salons, library, picture-gallery, cabinet of natural history, conservatory, and laboratory were superb--everything, in short, was exquisite."
"And then one is always sure to meet at Madame Dantes' soirees," added Louis Blanc, "exactly the persons who, of all others, he wishes to see, and whom he would meet nowhere else, poets, painters, authors, orators, statesmen and artists of every description--in fine, every man or woman, whether native or foreigner, distinguished for anything, is certain to be met with at M. Dantes' house."
"I once met there," said Flocon, "Rachel, the actress, and Van Amburgh, the lion-king."
"M. Dantes is a perfect Maecenas in encouraging merit, as every one knows," remarked Marrast; "and he manifests especial solicitude to show that he appreciates worth more highly than wealth--genius than station.
Poverty and ability are sure recommendations to him."
"Madame Dantes is, I am told, as devoted to the good cause as her husband," remarked Flocon.
"She is a second Madame Roland!"
exclaimed Louis Blanc.
"France will owe much to such women as she and her friend Madame Dudevant!"
"She differs greatly from Madame George Sand in some respects, I fancy," said Marrast; "but, if she at all rivals that wonderful woman in devotedness to the cause of human rights, whether of her own sex or ours, she deserves well of France.
In her charities, it is notorious, she has no rival.
Half the mendicants of the capital bless her name, and she is at the head of a dozen associations and enterprises for the amelioration of the condition of the destitute, suffering and abandoned of her sex."
"Upon my word, Messieurs," cried Ledru Rollin, "your praises of M. Dantes and Madame, his beautiful wife, are perfectly enthusiastic--so much so, that, in your zeal, you utterly forgot another matter quite as momentous.
I am so unfortunate as to know M. Dantes only as one of the great pillars of our noble cause, and a man who, for nearly six years, has proven himself an apostle of man's rights, and ready, if need be, to become a martyr!
That's enough for me to know of him!"
"But who really are M. Dantes and his wife?"
asked Flocon.
"Who really are any of us?"
laughingly rejoined Louis Blanc.
"Who really is any one in Paris," continued Marrast, "the blood-royal always and alone excepted?"
"Of M. Dantes this only is known," said Louis Blanc, "that for five or six years past he has been a Deputy from Marseilles, Lyons and other southern cities, all of which have been eager to honor themselves by returning him as their representative, as one of the boldest and most eloquent Republicans in all France; as for Madame Dantes, we know her to have once been the Countess de Morcerf, but now the wife of our friend, and one of the noblest and most lovely matrons in Paris.
What need have we to know more?
But our friend comes."
While this conversation was proceeding, Dantes and Mercedes had joined each other, and their hands were quietly clasped.
"Is all well, Edmond?"
was the anxious inquiry of the fond wife, in low, soft, musical tones, as she fixed upon his pale face her dark eyes, beaming with the tenderest solicitude.
"All is well, love," replied the husband.
"You will pardon my protracted absence, when I tell you it has been unavoidable--will you not, Mercedes?"
"Will I not?
What a question!
But I have been so anxious for your safety, knowing the perilous business in which you are engaged; and the night is so tempestuous."
"You forget that I have a constitution of iron, dear," replied Dantes;
"you forget that I was a sailor once, and the storms were my playthings!"
"But you will go home with me now, Edmond, will you not?"
she anxiously asked, placing her little white hand on his arm and gazing beseechingly into his eyes.
"Have I ever passed one night from your arms, my Mercedes, since we were wed?"
was the whispered response.
"Ah!
love, any pillow but thy soft bosom would be to me a thorny one!
You have spoiled me forever!"
he added, smiling.
"And shall we go now, Edmond?"
eagerly asked the delighted woman.
"Oh!
I'm so weary of this fete!"
"I must exchange a few words with our friend Louis Blanc, whom I see yonder, with others of our party, and then, dear, we will to our pillow.
We are both weary.
Au revoir!"
"Edmond--Edmond!"
cried the lady, as her husband was going, "do you see Joliette and Louise in the redowa yonder?"
Dantes looked and, with a well pleased smile, nodded assent; a more brilliant and well-matched pair could hardly have been found, Joliette in the splendid uniform of an officer of the Spahis, and she in her own magnificent beauty, fitly garbed.
M.
Dantes was received with marked respect by the knot of Republicans as he approached.
"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 stewardship 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 Marseillaise 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 masses 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, assure 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!"
CHAPTER XVII.
