The discipline was very strict: three times a week there was drill from six to ten in the morning, in the quadrangle of the Louvre, and twice a month shooting practice at Vincennes. I had given a specimen of my strength in lifting--with either five, three, or one other, when the other servants were supposed to be either killed, or _hors de combat_,-—pieces of eight weighing from three to four hundred kilogrammes, when, one day, I received an invitation to be at the Palais-Bourbon at four o'clock in the afternoon, fully armed. The business in hand was _the taking of the Chamber._ We had taken a sort of oath, after the manner of Freemasons and Carbonari, by which we had engaged to obey the commands of our chiefs without questioning. This one appeared rather high-handed, I must admit; but my oath was taken! So, at half-past three, I put on my artillery dress, placed six cartridges in my pouch and one in my carbine, and made my way towards the pont de la Concorde. I noticed with as much surprise as pride, that I was the first arrival. I only strutted about the more proudly, searching along the quays and bridges and streets for the arrival of my seven hundred and ninety-nine comrades who, four o'clock having struck, seemed to me to be late in coming, when I saw a blue and red uniform coming towards me. It was worn by Bixio. Two of us then here alone to capture four hundred and forty-nine deputies! It was hardly enough; but patriotism attempts ambitious things! Half-past four, five, half-past five and six o'clock struck. The deputies came out and filed past us, little suspecting that these two fierce-eyed artillerymen who watched them pass, as they leant against the parapet of the bridge, had come to capture them. Behind the deputies appeared Cavaignac in civilian dress. We went up to him. "It will not take place to-day," he said to us; "it is put off until next week." "Good!" I replied; "next week, then!" He shook hands and disappeared. I turned to Bixio. "I hope this postponement till next week will not prevent us from dining as usual?" I said. "Quite the reverse. I am as hungry as a wolf! Nothing makes one so empty as conspiring." So we went off and dined with that careless appetite which is the prerogative of conspirators of twenty-eight years of age. I have always suspected my new chiefs of wishing to, what they call in regimental parlance, test me; in which case Cavaignac can only have come just to make sure of my faithfulness in answering to his summons. Was or was not Bixio in his confidence? I never could make out. [1] TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.--Applied to a duellist who always kills or wounds his opponent. CHAPTER II