enly
confessed in all its ramifications, would trench upon the domain of
history and involve too long a digression. This glimpse of it is enough
to show the double part which Philippe Bridau undertook to play. The
former staff-officer of the Emperor was to lead a movement in Paris
solely for the purpose of masking the real conspiracy and occupying the
mind of the government at its centre, while the great struggle should
burst forth at the north. When the latter miscarried before discovery,
Philippe was ordered to break all links connecting the two plots, and to
allow the secrets of the secondary plot only to become known. For
this purpose, his abject misery, to which his state of health and his
clothing bore witness, was amply sufficient to undervalue the character
of the conspiracy and reduce its proportions in the eyes of the
authorities. The role was well suited to the precarious position of
the unprincipled gambler. Feeling himself astride of both parties, the
crafty Philippe played the saint to the royal government, all the while
retaining the good opinion of the men in high places who were of
the other party,--determined to cast in his lot at a later day with
whichever side he might then find most to his advantage.

These revelations as to the vast bearings of the real conspiracy made
Philippe a man of great distinction in the eyes of Carpentier and
Mignonnet, to whom his self-devotion seemed a state-craft worthy of the
palmy days of the Convention. In a short time the tricky Bonapartist
was seen to be on friendly terms with the two officers, and the
consideration they enjoyed in the town was, of course, shared by him.
He soon obtained, through their recommendation, the situation in the
insurance office that old Hochon had suggested, which required only
three hours of his day. Mignonnet and Carpentier put him up at their
club, where his good manners and bearing, in keeping with the high
opinion which the two officers expressed about him, won him a respect
often given to external appearances that are only deceitful.

Philippe, whose conduct was carefully considered and planned, had
indeed made many reflections while in prison as to the inconveniences
of leading a debauched life. He did not need Desroches's lecture to
understand the necessity of conciliating the people at Issoudun by
decent, sober, and respectable conduct. Delighted to attract Max's
ridicule by behaving with the propriety of a Mignonnet, he went fu