“My authority is wholly moral,” I rejoined; “it could but lose weight in becoming official. Besides, on no account would I dispossess M. Ernest Moreau, who has borne himself loyally and valiantly throughout this trouble.” Lamartine and Arago insisted: “Do not refuse our brevet.” “Very well,” said I, “I will take it--for the sake of the autographs; but it is understood that I keep it in my pocket.” “Yes, keep it,” said Armand Marrast laughingly, “so that you can say that one day you were _pair_ and the next day _maire_.” Lamartine took me aside into the recess of a window. “It is not a mairie I would like you to have, but a ministry. Victor Hugo, the Republic’s Minister of Instruction! Come now, since you say that you are Republican!” “Republican--in principle. But in fact, I was yesterday peer of France, I was yesterday for the Regency, and, believing the Republic to be premature, I should be also for the Regency to-day.” “Nations are above dynasties,” went on Lamartine. “I, too, have been a Royalist.” “Yes, but you were a deputy, elected by the nation; I was a peer, appointed by the King.” “The King in choosing you, under the terms of the Constitution, in one of the categories from which the Upper House was recruited, but honoured the peerage and also honoured himself.” “I thank you,” said I, “but you look at things from the outside; I consider them in my conscience.” We were interrupted by the noise of a prolonged fusillade which broke out suddenly on the square. A bullet smashed a window-pane above our heads. “What is the matter now?” exclaimed Lamartine in sorrowful tones. M. Armand Marrast and M. Marie went out to see what was going on. “Ah! my friend,” continued Lamartine, “how heavy is this revolutionary power to bear! One has to assume such weighty and such sudden responsibilities before one’s conscience and in presence of history! I do not know how I have been living during the past ten days. Yesterday I had a few grey hairs; to-morrow they will be white.” “Yes, but you are doing your duty as a man of genius grandly,” I commented. In a few minutes M. Armand Marrast returned. “It was not against us,” he said. “How the lamentable affray came about could not be explained to me. There was a collision, the rifles went off, why? Was it a misunderstanding, was it a quarrel between Socialists and Republicans? No one knows.” “Are there any wounded?” “Yes, and dead, too.” A gloomy silence followed. I rose. “You have no doubt some measures to take?” I said. “What measures?” answered Lamartine. “This morning we resolved to decree what you have already been able to do on a small scale in your quarter: the organization of the citizen’s National Guard--every Frenchman a soldier as well as a voter. But time is required, and meanwhile--” he pointed to the waves and eddies of heads surging on the square outside--“look, it is the sea!” A boy wearing an apron entered and spoke to him in low tones.