Edmond Dantes Part 20

"Why, this. He was as polite and courteous as ever, and the same cold, imperturbable smile was on his thin lip; but he looked careworn, and upon his countenance was an expression of solicitude, when it was closely watched, which I never saw there before. Ah, Beauchamp, I envy not the Premier!"

"And the guests?" asked the journalist.

"Of guests there were but few; and the s.p.a.cious salons of the Hotel des Affaires etrangeres looked dismal and deserted."

"The lovely Countess Leven--"

"Even she was absent."

"And the Countess of Dino?"

"Absent, too."

"The soiree must have been, indeed, dull without those 'charming queens of intrigue,' as Louis Blanc courteously calls them. But tell me, Count, is the Minister really the husband of the beautiful Leven, or is she only his par amours?"

"No one knows. It is certain, however, that the great man devotes to the enchantress every moment he can steal from the State, though to look at him one would hardly suppose him a lover, in any meaning of the term.

But who knows? To read his writings can one imagine a purer man? But, then, the affairs of Gisquet, Cubieres, Teste, and, last and worst, Pet.i.t, whose case was before the Chamber, do they not betray deplorable lack of firmness or morality? But no more of this. Who is that dark, splendid woman to whom young Joliette seems so devoted? I have seen them together before!"

"Why, you surely have not forgotten Louise d'Armilly, the charming cantatrice! She has recently left the boards, to the irreparable loss of the opera, having come into possession of an immense inheritance--some millions, it is said, left by her father, who was once a banker of Paris. She is a.s.serted to be very accomplished and very ambitious, and, as the young African paladin is thoroughly bewitched by her, and she by him, they will, doubtless, be matched as well as paired."

"Has Lucien been here?" asked the Deputy, after a pause, during which the young men surveyed the brilliant throngs that pa.s.sed before them and returned the salutations of their acquaintances.

"I think not. We have not met, at least," replied the journalist.

"He can hardly be spared to-night, I fancy. The Ministry have had a stormy day, and are, doubtless, preparing for one still more stormy to-morrow."

"There was a perfect tempest in the Chamber this evening, I understand."

"Call it rather a hurricane, a tornado!"

"Ah! give me the particulars; here, come with me into this corner.

Unfortunately, I was not present. I was busy on the General Committee for the Banquet of the Twelfth Arrondiss.e.m.e.nt, to-morrow, at Chaillot.

To avoid all possibility of collision with the police, we resolved, you know, not to have the banquet within the walls of Paris, and so there is to be a procession to the Barriere de l'Etoile. I have been there since morning, and reached the city only in time to come here. So, you see, I am edifyingly ignorant of the latest news."

"Then I have to inform you that there is to be no banquet after all."

"No banquet! Why, I thought it was compromised between Guizot and Barrot that the banquet should be allowed to proceed under protest, in order that the question might be brought before the Supreme Court."

"Such was the purpose, but a manifesto of the Banquet Committee, drawn up by Marrast, it is said, and, at all events, issued in 'Le National'

this morning, declaring the design not only of a banquet, but of a procession, changed everything. The address sets forth that all invited to the banquet would a.s.semble at the Place de la Madeleine to-morrow at about noon, and thence, escorted by the National Guard, and accompanied by the students of the universities, should proceed by the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe, at the extremity of the Avenue des Champs Elysees, and thence to the immense pavilion on the grounds of General s.h.i.+an. Only one toast, 'Reform, and the right to a.s.semble,' was announced to be drunk, and then a commissary of police could enter a formal protest against the whole proceeding on the spot, on which to base a legal prosecution, and the mult.i.tude would disperse."

"A very sensible mode of procedure," quietly remarked the journalist, "and one eminently calculated to relieve your friend Guizot and my friend Barrot from the awkward dilemma of a direct issue."

"But so thought not my friend Guizot. Like his oracle, the sage Montesquieu, he thought, 'Who a.s.sembles the people causes them to revolt.' He took fright at the manifesto, as he was pleased to dignify the simple programme in this morning's 'National,' and so, early in the sitting, it was announced that the reform banquet was utterly prohibited by M. Delessert, Prefect of Police, on the express injunction and responsibility of M. Duchatel, Minister of the Interior, by and with the advice of M. Hebert, Minister of Justice."

"Ha! and what said Odillon Barrot?" cried the journalist.

"He--why he said nothing at all, but immediately retired at the head of the opposition from the Chamber."

"To consult?"

"Of course. An hour after, they returned in a body two hundred and fifty strong, with Barrot at their head, who at once mounted the tribune and denounced the despotism of the Ministry in forbidding the peaceful a.s.sembling of the citizens, without tumult or arms, to discuss their political rights. Duchatel replied, under great excitement.

"'Shall reform committees dare to call out the National Guard at their pleasure?' he asked.

"'Will you dare to call out the National Guard?' retorted De Courtais, fiercely. 'Only try it!'

"'The Government of France will never yield!' rejoined the Minister, pale with fury.

"'Speak in your own name, Monsieur!' shouted Flocon.

"'I shall never speak in yours!' was the answer.

"'You play the game of menace!' cried Lesseps.

"'The Government will never yield!' again vociferated Duchatel.

"'Those were the very words of Charles X.!' observed M. Dantes, sternly.

The entire left responded in a terrific roar.

"'There is blood in those words!' shouted Ledru Rollin.

"'The Government will never yield!' the Minister of the Interior for the third time vehemently exclaimed, and the right gathered around him.

'This is worse than Polignac or Peyronet!' vociferated Odillon Barrot, his trumpet tones rising above all others like a clarion in a tempest.

Those hated names were greeted by a yell of abhorrence perfectly savage from the left; then all was uproar--a dozen voices simultaneously shouting at their loudest--denunciation--menace--defiance--retort--clenched hands--extended arms--furious gesticulations--every one on tip-toe--fiery eyes--stamping feet--shouts of 'Order! order!

order!'--and, amid all, the incessant tinkling of old Sauzet's little silver bell, which was just about as effective in restoring peace as it would be to quiet the tempest now howling through the streets of Paris.

At length, in utter consternation and dismay the old President put on his hat, and, p.r.o.nouncing the seance ended, rushed from his chair amid a hurricane of uproarious shouts."

"And Odillon Barrot?"

"Odillon Barrot led the opposition members immediately from the Chamber to his own house, where they have been ever since in deliberation. It was six o'clock when the sitting closed, and they must be in consultation now, or Barrot would surely be here, if but for a moment, out of respect to his bosom friend, our host. Ah! there he is, just entering, surrounded by a perfect army of Republicans--De Courtais, Marrast, Lesseps, Duvergier, Flocon, Lamartine, Dupont and a whole host besides."

"How excited they look!" exclaimed the journalist. "Ah! Thiers approaches them from the other end of the salon!"

"M. Thiers, like the worldly-wise and selfish man he is, has held himself aloof from the banquet, and even declined the invitation accepted by a hundred of his party; to-day he was absent from the Chamber and to-night from the conclave, all with the aspiring, yet vain hope, that the King will send for him to form a Ministry."

"And yet, in the Chamber, a few days ago, he said that he was of the party of the revolution in Europe."

"True, but he added that he wished the revolution carried on by its moderate supporters, and that he should do all he could to keep it in the hands of the moderate party."

"'But if it should pa.s.s into the hands of a party not moderate,'

continued the crafty ex-Minister, 'I shall not abandon the cause of the revolution. I shall be always of the party of the revolution.' But see, he singles out Marrast, of all others!"

"And his old colleague of 'Le National' seems to give him no very cordial reception," added the Deputy. "But let us move up and hear the determination of the opposition relative to the banquet."

"That's the very question the little historian has just propounded to the great journalist. Now for the answer."

"The opposition decide, Monsieur, to abandon the banquet," was the angry reply of the editor to the ex-Minister.