On the 29th March old Beslay presented himself before the tabernacle. De Ploeuc had mustered his 430 clerks, armed with muskets without cartridges. Beslay, led through the lines of these warriors, humbly prayed the governor to be so kind as to supply the pay of the National Guard. De Ploeuc answered superciliously, spoke of defending himself. "But," said Beslay, "if, to prevent the effusion of blood, the Commune appointed a governor." "A governor! never!" said De Ploeuc, who understood his man; "but a delegate! If you were that delegate we might come to an understanding." And, doing the pathetic, "Come, M. Beslay, help me to save this. This is the fortune of your country; this is the fortune of France." Beslay, deeply moved, hurried off to the Executive Commission, repeated his lesson all the better that he believed it and prided himself on his financial lore. "The bank," he said, "is the fortune of the country: without it, no more industry, no more commerce. If you violate it, all its notes will be so much waste-paper."[118] This trash circulated in the Hotel-de-Ville, and the Proudhonists of the Council, forgetting that their master put the suppression of the bank at the head of his revolutionary programme, backed old Beslay. At Versailles itself, the capitalist stronghold had no more inveterate defenders than those of the Hotel-de-Ville. If some one had at least proposed, "Let us at least occupy the bank," but the Executive Commission had not the nerve to do this, and contented itself with commissioning Beslay. De Ploeuc received the good man with open arms, installed him in the nearest cabinet, even persuading him to sleep at the bank, made him his hostage, and once more breathed freely. Thus since the first week the Assembly of the Hotel-de-Ville showed itself weak towards the authors of the sortie, weak towards the Central Committee, weak towards the bank, trifling in its decrees, in the choice of its delegate to the War Office, without a military plan, without a programme, without general views, and indulging in desultory discussions. The Radicals who had remained in the Council saw whither it was drifting, and, not inclined to play the martyrs, they sent in their resignations. O Revolution! thou dost not await the well-timed day and hour. Thou comest suddenly, blind and fatal as the avalanche. The true soldier of the people accepts the combat wherever hazard may place him. Blunders, defections, compromising companions do not dishearten him. Though certain of defeat, he struggles still; his victory looms in the future. FOOTNOTES: [115] Such is the text of the decree. [116] M. Barthelemy St. Hilaire, M. Thiers' secretary, answered Barral de Montaut, who spoke of the possibility of a massacre in the prisons: "The hostages! the hostages! But we can do nothing. What should we do? So much the worse for them."--_Enquete sur le 18 Mars_, vol. ii. p. 271.