agrant act of bad faith, he overthrew
him, or at any rate contributed largely to his overthrow, and covered
him with mud.

A fallen minister, if he is to rise again to power, must show that he is
to be feared; this man, intoxicated by Royal glibness, had fancied that
his position would be permanent; he acknowledged his delinquencies;
besides confessing them, he did Marcas a small money service, for Marcas
had got into debt. He subsidized the newspaper on which Marcas worked,
and made him the manager of it.

Though he despised the man, Marcas, who, practically, was being
subsidized too, consented to take the part of the fallen minister.
Without unmasking at once all the batteries of his superior intellect,
Marcas came a little further than before; he showed half his shrewdness.
The Ministry lasted only a hundred and eighty days; it was swallowed
up. Marcas had put himself into communication with certain deputies, had
moulded them like dough, leaving each impressed with a high opinion of
his talent; his puppet again became a member of the Ministry, and then
the paper was ministerial. The Ministry united the paper with another,
solely to squeeze out Marcas, who in this fusion had to make way for a
rich and insolent rival, whose name was well known, and who already had
his foot in the stirrup.

Marcas relapsed into utter destitution; his haughty patron well knew the
depths into which he had cast him.

Where was he to go? The ministerial papers, privily warned, would have
nothing to say to him. The opposition papers did not care to admit him
to their offices. Marcas could side neither with the Republicans nor
with the Legitimists, two parties whose triumph would mean the overthrow
of everything that now is.

"Ambitious men like a fast hold on things," said he with a smile.

He lived by writing a few articles on commercial affairs, and
contributed to one of those encyclopedias brought out by speculation and
not by learning. Finally a paper was founded, which was destined to
live but two years, but which secured his services. From that moment he
renewed his connection with the minister's enemies; he joined the party
who were working for the fall of the Government; and as soon as his
pickaxe had free play, it fell.

This paper had now for six months ceased to exist; he had failed to find
employment of any kind; he was spoken of as a dangerous man, calumny
attacked him; he had unmasked a huge financial and mercantile job