"No," and you have broken your sword! It
is you who have deserved it!"

[20] Died in exile in Guernsey. See the "Pendant l'Exil," under the
heading _Actes et Paroles_, vol. ii.

[21] Died in exile at Termonde.

[22] Pro Hugonotorum strage. Medal struck at Rome in 1572.

CHAPTER XV.

THE QUESTION PRESENTS ITSELF

It was one o'clock in the afternoon.

Bonaparte had again become gloomy.

The gleams of sunshine on such countenances as these last very short
time.

He had gone back to his private room, had seated himself before the
fire, with his feet on the hobs, motionless, and no one any longer
approached him except Roquet.

What was he thinking of?

The twistings of the viper cannot be foreseen.

What this man achieved on this infamous day I have told at length in
another book. See "Napoleon the Little."

From time to time Roquet entered and informed him of what was going on.
Bonaparte listened in silence, deep in thought, marble in which a
torrent of lava boiled.

He received at the Elysee the same news that we received in the Rue
Richelieu; bad for him, good for us. In one of the regiments which had
just voted, there were 170 "Noes:" This regiment has since been
dissolved, and scattered abroad in the African army.

They had counted on the 14th of the line which had fired on the people
in February. The Colonel of the 14th of the line had refused to
recommence; he had just broken his sword.

Our appeal had ended by being heard. Decidedly, as we have seen, Paris
was rising. The fall of Bonaparte seemed to be foreshadowed. Two
Representatives, Fabvier and Crestin, met in the Rue Royale, and
Crestin, pointing to the Palace of the Assembly, said to Fabvier, "We
shall be there to-morrow."

One noteworthy incident. Mazes became eccentric, the prison unbent
itself; the interior experienced an undefinable reverberation from the
outside. The warders, who the preceding evening had been insolent to
the Representatives when going for their exercise in the courtyard, now
saluted them to the ground. That very morning of Thursday, the 4th, the
governor of the prison had paid a visit to the prisoners, and had said
to them, "It is not my fault." He brought them books and writing-paper,
a thing which up to that time he had refused. The Representative
Valentin was in solitary confinement; on the morning of the 4th his
warder suddenly became amiable, and offered to obtain for him news from
outside, through