Immoderate applause, echoing "Bravos!" on the part of the majority, greeted this speech. Cries of "Long live General Bonaparte!" were heard.
President Lemercier interrupted the tumult. "General," he said, "the Council of Ancients receives your oaths. It entertains no doubt of their sincerity and your zeal to fulfil them. He who never promised the Republic victories in vain can not but execute with devotion his new engagement to serve her in all faith and loyalty."
Followed by his staff, General Bonaparte strode from the hall. The traitor majority rose to its feet with the foresworn cry upon its lips:
"Long live the Republic!"
CHAPTER VI.
IN THE ORANGERY AT ST. CLOUD.
Promptly at noon of the 19th Brumaire the Council of Ancients a.s.sembled in the great gallery of the palace at St. Cloud, still under the presidency of Lemercier, one of the most active spirits in the conspiracy. An usher announced:
"General Bonaparte."
General Bonaparte entered the gallery with a lofty air; his aides trailed in his wake. Through the doors of the gallery, which remained open, were visible the guns and fur caps of a platoon of grenadiers.
"What! Soldiers here!" demanded several members of the minority, with indignation. "What right has General Bonaparte to announce himself in this guise? Would he play the role of a new Caesar?"
"I demand the floor!" cried Bonaparte imperiously.
"In what t.i.tle, in what right do you thrust yourself into these precincts?" demanded Savary.
"General Bonaparte has the floor," Lemercier declared from his chair.
"Representatives of the people, you are in no ordinary circ.u.mstances,"
began Bonaparte, when at last he could speak. "You are sitting upon a volcano. Allow me to speak with the frankness of a soldier, the frankness of a citizen zealous for the welfare of his country; and suspend, I pray you, your judgment till you have heard me to the end. I was at ease and quiet in Paris when I received the decree of the Council of Ancients, which opened my eyes to the dangers that it and the Republic ran. At once I called to my brothers-in-arms, and we came to give you our support. We came to offer you the arm of the nation, for you are its head. Our intentions were pure and disinterested; and as the price of the devotion we yesterday and to-day displayed, lo, already we reap calumnies! There is speech of "a new Caesar," "a new Cromwell"; they pretend that I aim to establish a new military government."
The majority violently applauded these words. The minority held itself impa.s.sible. General Bonaparte continued, increasingly threatening, imperious, and haughty:
"If it was said, to put me outside the law, I would call upon you, brave defenders of the Republic, with whom I have shared so many perils to establish liberty and equality. I would throw myself and my braves upon the courage of you all, and upon my fortune!" (Shudders of indignation among the minority, shocked by this audacious appeal to force.) "I invite you, Representatives of the people, to form into a general committee, and to take those salutary measures which the present dangers urgently demand. You will find my arm ever ready to execute your commands."
Then Bonaparte and his suite retired.
While the majority of the Council of Ancients pledged their allegiance to the military dictator, the republican majority in the Council of Five Hundred, a.s.sembled in the Orangery of the palace, was a prey to the most lively agitation. Lucien Bonaparte was in the chair.
"You have the floor, citizen," he said, indicating Emile Gaudin, who was on his feet.
The latter mounted to the tribunal: "Citizen Representatives," he began, "a decree of the Council of Ancients has transferred the seat of the legislative body to this commune. So extraordinary a measure can only be evoked by the fear of, or approach of, some extraordinary danger. In fact, the Council of Ancients has declared to the French people that it made use of the right conferred upon it by Article 102 of the Const.i.tution, in order _to disarm the factions which seek to subjugate the national representation, and to restore internal peace_. I ask, first, that a committee of seven members be elected to report on the condition of the Republic and the means of saving it; second, that the committee make its report to the present session; third, that until then all deliberation be suspended; fourth, that all motions be submitted to it. Let the a.s.sembly decide."
Long applause followed this speech. Representative Delbrel rose next.
"Representatives of the people," said he, "grave dangers do, in fact, threaten the Republic. But those who wish to destroy it are themselves the very ones who, under the pretext of saving it, wish to change or overturn the existing form of government. In vain these conspirators have hoped to frighten us by deploying about us the trappings of armed force. If, nevertheless, the conspirators succeed in deceiving or misleading the courage of our troops, we shall know how to die at our posts, in the defense of public liberty against the tyrants, against the dictators who wish to crush it. _We want the Const.i.tution!_"
Again prolonged applause burst out as Delbrel uttered these words. Many of the members spontaneously rose and repeated, with enthusiasm:
"The Const.i.tution or death!"
Lucien Bonaparte hammered his bell for silence, and Delbrel resumed, energetically:
"Bayonets affright us not. Here we are free! I ask that all the members of this Council, by roll-call, renew at once their oath to sustain the Const.i.tution of the year III."
The a.s.sembly rose as one. "Down with the traitors!" "Long live the Const.i.tution!" "Death to the traitors and conspirators!" shouted several members.
"I ask that we take the oath to oppose the re-establishment of all forms of tyranny," cried Grandmaison.
Grandmaison left the tribunal amid thunderous applause and continued cries of "Long live the Const.i.tution!" The acclamations lasted several minutes. Hardly able to dissimulate the inward irritation he felt, young Bonaparte was finally forced to put the taking of the oath to a vote. It was carried unanimously, the infamous minority of intriguers in league with the president not daring to come out in the open by voting against.
When it came in regular course to his turn to take the oath, Lucien Bonaparte left the chair, ostentatiously mounted the tribunal, and in the midst of a profound silence, with the eyes of all fixed upon him, uttered the words in a strangely unnatural voice:
"_I swear fidelity to the Republic and to the Const.i.tution of the year III._"
"Secretary of the _Monitor_ newspaper, insert in the report the solemn oath of Citizen Lucien Bonaparte!" cried Briot quickly. The words were followed by shouts of "Bravo!"
"If he plays false to his oath, the treachery will live in history!"
exclaimed Grandmaison.
Suddenly one of the doors of the Orangery flew open with a crash, and on the threshold appeared General Bonaparte, encircled by his generals and aides-de-camp, and followed by his company of grenadiers, with fixed bayonets. At the sight of this irruption of armed force into their sacred precincts, the Representatives of the people sprang from their benches as if impelled by an electric shock. Their indignation swelled to voice, and outcries rose in all quarters--"What! Bayonets here! Saber draggers! Down with the dictator!"
All his a.s.surance notwithstanding, General Bonaparte fell back before the outburst produced by his and his soldiers" presence. He removed his hat and signified that he wished to speak. He made to cross the sill of the entrance, when Representative Bigonnet sprang before him, and, barring his pa.s.sage and that of his armed escort, cried:
"Back--back, rash man! Leave this place at once; you violate the sanctuary of the law!"
The att.i.tude of the Representative of the people, his forceful accents, made their impression upon General Bonaparte. He paled, hesitated, and stopped. A new outburst of indignation resounded in the hall:
"Down with the dictator!"
"Outlaw the audacious fellow!"
"Long live the Const.i.tution!"
"Let us die at our post; long live the Republic!"
Controlling the pa.s.sion which boiled within him, General Bonaparte shook his head haughtily, and seemed again, by a commanding gesture, to ask for the floor. Once more he essayed to cross the threshold of the hall, followed by his staff, when again several Representatives threw themselves in front of him, forcing him to retire; and Citizen Destrem called in a voice choked with indignation:
"General, did you, then, only conquer in order to insult the national representation?"
Anew, and with redoubled energy, the cries broke out of "Long live the Const.i.tution! Outlaw the dictator!"
White with fear and at a loss what to do, Bonaparte recoiled before the universal reprobation displayed against him. His boldness no longer swayed the situation; he made a sign to his officers, several of whom had carried their clenched hands to their sabers, and he and they withdrew.
Lucien Bonaparte, the secret accomplice of his brother"s intrigue against the liberties of the land, and who had followed with anguish the diverse incidents of the preceding scene, seemed stricken with consternation at the General"s retreat. The great uproar which continued after the departure of Bonaparte gradually calmed down, and little by little peace was restored on the benches of the national representatives.
No sooner had quiet come upon the a.s.sembly, however, than a grenadier captain burst into the hall, leaving his platoon standing in the hallway. He marched rapidly towards the group in the middle of which stood Lucien Bonaparte, answering a vehement cross fire of questions from his colleagues with a vehemence no less than theirs. The captain approached Lucien, spoke a few words in his ear, and the young man hastened from the hall, followed by the captain and his escort. This new violation of the council-chamber of the Five Hundred was so sudden, the departure of their president so unexpected, that the Representatives of the people at first were dumb with astonishment. Then a full-throated cry burst forth, "We are betrayed! Our president has gone over to General Bonaparte!" The agitation of the a.s.sembly was tremendous.