ace in it,
but the pay won't be more than fifty francs a month at the outside."

"That will be enough."

At the end of a week Philippe had a new suit of clothes,--coat,
waistcoat, and trousers,--of good blue Elbeuf cloth, bought on credit,
to be paid for at so much a month; also new boots, buckskin gloves, and
a hat. Giroudeau sent him some linen, with his weapons and a letter for
Carpentier, who had formerly served under Giroudeau. The letter secured
him Carpentier's good-will, and the latter presented him to his friend
Mignonnet as a man of great merit and the highest character. Philippe
won the admiration of these worthy officers by confiding to them a few
facts about the late conspiracy, which was, as everybody knows, the
last attempt of the old army against the Bourbons; for the affair of the
sergeants at La Rochelle belongs to another order of ideas.

Warned by the fate of the conspiracy of the 19th of August, 1820, and
of those of Berton and Caron, the soldiers of the old army resigned
themselves, after their failure in 1822, to await events. This last
conspiracy, which grew out of that of the 19th of August, was really
a continuation of the latter, carried on by a better element. Like its
predecessor, it was absolutely unknown to the royal government. Betrayed
once more, the conspirators had the wit to reduce their vast enterprise
to the puny proportions of a barrack plot. This conspiracy, in which
several regiments of cavalry, infantry, and artillery were concerned,
had its centre in the north of France. The strong places along the
frontier were to be captured at a blow. If success had followed, the
treaties of 1815 would have been broken by a federation with Belgium,
which, by a military compact made among the soldiers, was to withdraw
from the Holy Alliance. Two thrones would have been plunged in a moment
into the vortex of this sudden cyclone. Instead of this formidable
scheme--concerted by strong minds and supported by personages of high
rank--being carried out, one small part of it, and that only, was
discovered and brought before the Court of Peers. Philippe Bridau
consented to screen the leaders, who retired the moment the plot was
discovered (either by treachery or accident), and from their seats in
both Chambers lent their co-operation to the inquiry only to work for
the ultimate success of their purpose at the heart of the government.

To recount this scheme, which, since 1830, the Liberals have op