"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. Dantès 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 Dantès, 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 Gérard, 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 Dantès, "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 Hôtel 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. Honoré, 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 Dantès, with apparent seriousness. "Their leaders should have thought of that--arms are so easily provided--but then they can rely on their men!"