"You do not then approve of the Eighteenth Fructidor?"
"No."
"But Eighteenth Fructidors prevent Eighteenth Brumaires."
"No. They prepare the way for them."
"But reasons of State exist?"
"No. What exists is the Law."
"The Eighteenth Fructidor has been accepted by exceedingly honest minds."
"I know that."
"Blanqui is in its favor, with Michelet."
"I am against it, with Barbes."
From the moral aspect I pa.s.sed to the practical aspect.
"This said," resumed I, "let us examine your plan."
This plan bristled with difficulties. I pointed them out to him.
"Count on the National Guard! Why, General Lawoestyne had not yet got command of it. Count on the Army? Why, General Neumayer was at Lyons, and not at Paris. Would he march to the a.s.sistance of the a.s.sembly?
What did we know about this? As for Lawoestyne, was he not double-faced?
Were they sure of him? Call to arms the 8th Legion? Forestier was no longer Colonel. The 5th and 6th? But Gressier and Howyne were only lieutenant-colonels, would these legions follow them? Order the Commissary Yon? But would he obey the Left alone? He was the agent of the a.s.sembly, and consequently of the majority, but not of the minority.
These were so many questions. But these questions, supposing them answered, and answered in the sense of success, was success itself the question? The question is never Success, it is always Right. But here, even if we had obtained success, we should not have Right. In order to arrest the President an order of the a.s.sembly was necessary; we should replace the order of the a.s.sembly by an act of violence of the Left. A scaling and a burglary; an a.s.sault by scaling-ladders on the const.i.tuted authority, a burglary on the Law. Now let us suppose resistance; we should shed blood. The Law violated leads to the shedding of blood. What is all this? It is a crime."
"No, indeed," he exclaimed, "it is the _salus populi_."
And he added,--
"_Suprema Lex_."
"Not for me," I said.
I continued,--
"I would not kill a child to save a people."
"Cato did so."
"Jesus did not do so."
And I added,--
"You have on your side all ancient history, you are acting according to the uprightness of the Greeks, and according to the uprightness of the Romans; for me, I am acting according to the uprightness of Humanity.
The new horizon is of wider range than the old."
There was a pause. He broke it.
"Then he will be the one to attack!"
"Let it be so."
"You are about to engage in a battle which is almost lost beforehand."
"I fear so."
"And this unequal combat can only end for you, Victor Hugo, in death or exile."
"I believe it."
"Death is the affair of a moment, but exile is long."
"It is a habit to be learned."
He continued,--
"You will not only be proscribed. You will be calumniated."
"It is a habit already learned."
He continued,--
"Do you know what they are saying already?"
"What?"
"They say that you are irritated against him because he has refused to make you a Minister."
"Why you know yourself that--"
"I know that it is just the reverse. It is he who has asked you, and it is you who have refused."
"Well, then--"
"They lie."
"What does it matter?"
He exclaimed,--
"Thus, you will have caused the Bonapartes to re-enter France, and you will be banished from France by a Bonaparte!"[32]
"Who knows," said I, "if I have not committed a fault? This injustice is perhaps a justice."