are friends of mine, as I believe they are of your majesty."
"Then I am dealing with a Girondist?" queried the monarch, smiling.
"With a patriot, and faithful subject of his king."
Louis bit his thick lips.
"Was it to serve the king and the country the more efficaciously that you refused to be foreign minister for a time?"
"Sire, I replied that I preferred, to being any kind of minister, the command promised me. I am a soldier, not a statesman."
"I have been assured, on the contrary, that you are both," observed the sovereign.
"I am praised too highly, sire."
"It was on that assurance that I insisted."
"Yes, sire; but in spite of my great regret, I was obliged to persist in refusing."
"Why refuse?"
"Because it is a crisis. It has upset De Narbonne and compromises Lessart. Any man has the right to keep out of employment or be employed, according to what he thinks he is fitted for. Now, my liege, I am good for something or for nothing. If the latter, leave me in my obscurity. Who knows for what fate you draw me forth? If I am good for something, do not give me power for an instant, the premier of a day, but place some solid footing under me that I may be your support at another day. Our affairs – your majesty will pardon me already regarding his business as mine – our affairs are in too great disfavor abroad for courts to deal with an ad interim ministry; this interregnum – you will excuse the frankness of an old soldier" – no one was less frank than Dumouriez, but he wanted to appear so at times – "this interval will be a blunder against which the House will revolt, and it will make me disliked there; more, I must say that it will injure the king, who will seem still to cling to his former Cabinet, and only be waiting for a chance to bring it back."
"Were that my intention, do you not believe it possible, sir?"
"I believe, sire, that it is full time to drop the past."
"And make myself a Jacobin, as you have said to my valet, Laporte?"
"Forsooth, did your majesty this, it would perplex all the parties, and the Jacobins most of all."
"Why not straightway advise me to don the red cap?"
"I wish I saw you in it," said Dumouriez.
For an instant the king eyed with distrust the man who had thus replied to him; and then he resumed:
"So you want a permanent office?"
"I am wishing nothing at all, only ready to receive the king's orders; still, I should prefer them to send me to the frontier to retaining me in town."
"But if I give you the order to stay, and the foreign office portfolio in permanency, what will you say?"
"That your majesty has dispelled your prejudices against me," returned the general, with a smile.
"Well, yes, entirely, general; you are my premier."
"Sire, I am devoted to your service; but – "
"Restrictions?"
"Explanations, sire. The first minister's place is not what it was. Without ceasing to be your majesty's faithful servant on entering the post, I become the man of the nation. From this day, do not expect the language my predecessors used; I must speak according to the Constitution and liberty. Confined to my duties, I shall not play the courtier; I shall not have the time, and I drop all etiquette so as to better serve the king. I shall only work with you in private or at the council – and I warn you that it will be hard work."
"Hard work – why?"
"Why, it is plain; almost all your diplomatic corps are anti-revolutionists. I must urge you to change them, cross your tastes on the new choice, propose officials of whom your majesty never so much as heard the names, and others who will displease."
"In which case?" quickly interrupted Louis.
"Then I shall obey when your majesty's repugnance is too strong and well-founded, as you are the master; but if your choice is suggested by your surroundings, and is clearly made to get me into trouble, I shall entreat your majesty to find a successor for me. Sire, think of the dreadful dangers besieging your throne, and that one must have the public confidence in support; sire, this depends on you."
"Let me stay you a moment; I have long pondered over these dangers." He stretched out his hand to the portrait of Charles I. of England, by Vandyke, and continued, while wiping his forehead with his handkerchief: "This would remind me, if I were to forget them. It is the same situation, with similar dangers; perhaps the scaffold of Whitehall is erecting on City Hall Place."
"You are looking too far ahead, my lord."
"Only to the horizon. In this event, I shall march to the scaffold as Charles I. did, not perhaps as knightly, but at least as like a Christian. Proceed, general."
Dumouriez was checked by this firmness, which he had not expected.
"Sire, allow me to change the subject."
"As you like; I only wish to show that I am not daunted by the prospect they try to frighten me with, but that I am prepared for even this emergency."
"If I am still regarded as your Minister of Foreign Affairs, I will bring four dispatches to the first consul. I notify your majesty that they will not resemble those of previous issue in style or principles; they will suit the circumstances. If this first piece of work suits your majesty, I will continue; if not, my carriage will be waiting to carry me to serve king and country on the border; and, whatever may be said about my diplomatic ability," added Dumouriez, "war is my true element, and the object of my labors these thirty-six years."
"Wait," said the other, as he bowed before going out; "we agree on one point, but there are six more to settle."
"My colleagues?"
"Yes; I do not want you to say that you are hampered by such a one. Choose your Cabinet, sir."
"Sire, you are fixing grave responsibility on me."
"I believe I am meeting your wishes by putting it on you."
"Sire, I know nobody at Paris save one, Lacoste, whom I propose for the navy office."
"Lacoste? A clerk in the naval stores, I believe?" questioned the king.
"Who resigned rather than connive at some foul play."
"That's a good recommendation. What about the others?'"
"I must consult Petion, Brissot, Condorcet – "
"The Girondists, in short?"
"Yes, sire."
"Let the Gironde pass; we shall see if they will get us out of the ditch better than the other parties."
"We have still to learn if the four dispatches will suit."
"We might learn that this evening; we can hold an extraordinary council, composed of yourself, Grave, and Gerville – Duport has resigned. But do
